In February, for the second consecutive month, Confindustria's RTT index indicates a moderate decline in turnover at constant prices of Italian companies, equal to -0.2%, after -0.5% in January. The drop in February was due to construction and partly to industry, compared to an increase in the services sector (+1.0%).
The RTT recorded moderate declines both for the North-West (-0.4% in February) and for the North-East (-0.1%), a stronger decline in the Center (-2.0%), while in the South it indicates a moderate increase (+0.5%).
In the expectations of industrialists, the production dynamics are stable: 47.5% of the sample of large industrial companies associated with Confindustria believe that production will remain stable in March. If we look at the quarterly dynamics, companies have become more optimistic: in the 1st quarter of 2024, in fact, compared to the 4th of 2023, the share of companies predicting a contraction in production fell by 22.7 points, while it increased the percentage of companies seeing an improvement was 11.1 points.
According to the large companies of Confindustria, the dynamics of demand and orders will continue to be the main driving factor in production. And expectations on production costs are improving: the balance between the share of companies reporting a reduction and those reporting an increase goes back to -0.8%, from -8.5% in February.
The Rtt (Real time turnover) index is an indicator of the Italian economy developed by the Confindustria CSC, based on company electronic invoicing data.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA