Italian consumer confidence
hit the highest level on record this month, Istat said Friday.
The national statistics agency's consumer-confidence index
climbed to 118.4 points in November, the highest since it
started publishing data on this factor in January 1995, up from
117 points in October.
The agency added that the data was only affected "in a
minimum part" by this month's terrorist attacks in Paris,
possibly because much of the information used to compile it was
collected in the first half of November.
Consumer confidence is considered important by experts
because people tend to spend less if they are pessimistic about
the economic climate, making it a key factor for the economic
outlook.
Italy has returned to positive growth in 2015 after years
of recession.
Italian business confidence stayed "substantially
stationary" in November at its highest level since October 2007,
before the start of the global economic crisis, Istat said on
Friday.
The national statistics agency said its
business-confidence index was 107.1 this month, up from 107 in
October.
The agency said optimism was on the rise in the
construction and market services sectors, but was down in
manufacturing and retail.
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