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Italy's Consumer Confidence Drops to 15-Year Low
Italians are less confident about economic conditions now than they have been since the government started tracking the data in 1996, according to the country's Istat statistics bureau.
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Italians are less confident about economic conditions now than they have been since the government started tracking the data in 1996, according to the country's Istat statistics bureau.
The Italy's consumer confidence index fell to 86.5 this month from a downwardly revised 88.8 in April. Gauges of current and future conditions also worsened. Buying intentions dropped sharply, and Italians expect the job market to deteriorate.
Optimism has been squelched by Prime Minister Mario Monti's €20 billion austerity program, analysts opine. They say current attitudes may signal that the Italian economy, which shrank 0.2% and 0.7% in the final two quarters of 2011 and 0.8% in the first quarter of this year, will contract again in the April-June period.
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