Business Confidence Drops In Italy

In another sign that Italy may have fallen into recession, business confidence dropped in January. There are worries that Italy’s debt loan cannot be paid down if its economy falters and austerity pulls stimulus from the economy. That nation’s new government has insisted it can still to strict austerity measures as a means to keep down borrowing costs. The news comes on the same day that Spain said its Q4 GDP fell .3%

Italy statistics bureau Istat reports that

In January the seasonally adjusted confidence indicator in manufacturing fell from 92.5 in December to 92.1. Assessments on order books improved, while production expectations worsened and inventories decreased. Differences emerged at sector and geographical level.

Istat also reported that trade and services enterprise confidence fell in the same month

The seasonally adjusted market services confidence indicator decreased to 76.4 in January (from 80.2 in December 2011). The index increased in Information and communication (to 78.5) and decreased in Transportation and storage (to 79.4), in Tourism services (to 71.7) and in Business services and other services (to 76.8). On a regional basis, confidence worsened in all the regional partition, falling to 75.3 in the North West and in the North East, to 78.1 in the Centre and to 80.3 in the South.   The seasonally adjusted retail trade confidence indicator decreased to 78.4 in January (from 81.7 in December). The confidence diminished both in large scale distribution ( moving to 65.5 from 68.1) and in small and medium scale distribution (passing to 88.6 from 93.5 of the previous month).

If it walks like a recession and talks like a recession, it probably is one.