ROME, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The consumer confidence index in Italy dropped in all of its components, and the composite business confidence index slightly fell in December, the National Institute of Statistics stated on Friday.
The overall index among Italian consumers decreased to 113.1 percentage points against 114.7 in the previous month, marking the third consecutive drop since October, data showed.
"All the components lowered," ISTAT said. "The economic component fell from 131.5 to 129.4 (points), the personal one from 108.9 to 107.0, the current one from 115.5 to 110.0, and the future one from 118.7 to 116.0 points."
Consumers' expectations on unemployment also reflected a worsening confidence climate, with the balance growing to 29.6 points in December from 22.8 in the previous month.
In its last report, ISTAT had already highlighted "a pronounced worsening in unemployment expectations" in November, with the balance rising to 22.8 points from 13.7 points.
On Friday, the agency further explained that "a broad deterioration in confidence climate was also recorded (in December) among businesses, where the seasonally adjusted index returns to the levels of two years ago."
The composite business confidence index dropped to 99.8 from 101.0 on the monthly basis. The climate index also decreased to 103.6 points from 104.3 points in manufacturing, which is a sector quite relevant for the Italian economy.
"The (manufacturing) confidence drop reflects a further deterioration in the judgements on overall demand -- in view of slight growth expectations -- and, from a sectorial perspective, the decline in intermediate goods," ISTAT explained.
A deterioration of the climate could also be detected in construction and services. On the contrary, the confidence index in retail trade rose to 104.8 points from 102.1.
On Friday, ISTAT also released preliminary data on foreign trade with countries outside the European Union (EU) in November. In seasonally adjusted terms, exports increased by 0.7 percent and imports decreased by 1.3 percent compared to October.
In January-November 2018, Italian exports to non-EU countries increased by 2.4 percent and imports increased by 8.7 percent compared with the same period of 2017.
