- Societe Generale
Manufacturing production in Italy, the third-biggest economy of the single currency area, slipped more than estimated by 0.9% in September, meaning that the Italian economy is struggling to gain stable growth momentum based on recovery of the production sector. Analysts, however, predicted the production to grow 0.2%, the same as in August. As indicated in the report of Istat, the output in all products went down, while the sharpest slump was posted by consumer and investment goods, which plummeted as much as 3.2% and 2.4%, respectively. Intermediate goods lost 0.8% and energy production decreased 1.5% on a monthly basis. Year-on-year, the indicator plunged 2.9%, if adjusted for workdays.
At the same time, investor confidence in the whole Eurozone, calculated by Sentix and based on survey of 2,800 investors and analysts, improved slightly to –11.9 points in November, up from –13.7 points last month. Despite that, economists forecasted the index to improve more considerably and reach the –6.9 mark. The report underlines concerns over economic growth in the region, being that negative numbers of the index mean that pessimism prevails on the market. The November's improvement is explained by recent announcements of the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan about extra stimulus they are going to provide for the economy.
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