Italy March consumer confidence index 101.0 vs 100.5 expected

Latest data released by Istat - 27 March 2020

• Prior 111.4; revised to 110.9
• Manufacturing confidence 89.5 vs 88.0 expected
• Prior 100.6; revised to 98.8
• Economic sentiment 81.7
• Prior 99.8; revised to 97.8

That's a sharp drop in consumer morale and economic confidence also takes a massive dent, with the latter falling to its lowest level since June 2013.

As Italy continues to struggle to deal with the virus outbreak and remains in lockdown mode, the economic damage will continue to be rather severe over the coming weeks.

Italian research house Prometeia says that the country's GDP could contract by 6.5% this year, and even that looks to be a fairly optimistic estimate at this point.