In the last month, the propensity to buy of Italians fell by 11.8%, confirming the negative trend already evident since last March after 4 consecutive months of growth. This is what was found by the Findomestic Observatory in May, created by the consumer credit company of the BNP Paribas group in collaboration with Eumetra. The crisis in Ukraine as well as the fears of the surge in inflation are dragging all the monitored sectors down (between -2 and -25%). To keep is only that of “travel and holidays” which resists in view of the summer (+ 1.1%). Nonetheless, purchase intentions remain overall above pre-covid levels.
“The 3-month purchase intentions remain high – comments Claudio Bardazzi, Findomestic Observatory manager – but are struggling to translate into a perception of immediate purchase opportunities. In a scenario of great uncertainty, consumers remain cautious: 3 out of 4 interviewees (75% of the sample) declare that they do not consider this a good time to spend, a new negative record in the last 12 months. “
Looking at the individual sectors, the expectation is on the “incentive effect”. The intentions to purchase new cars recorded at the end of April fell by 8.1% (17.2% for electrified ones) and those relating to used cars by 13.8%. The effect of the new government incentives has yet to be felt on the mobility sector, which also suffers in the “two-wheeler” segment: the propensity to purchase motorcycles and scooters falls by 22.4%. More contained decline for alternative electric vehicles: -2.2% for e-bikes and -5.5% for electric scooters.
Slow down the home sector. After the positive performance of the last few months, the purchase intentions of the home sector are slowing down also due to the greater anti-fraud constraints on the 110% eco-bonus. The propensity to purchase new houses or apartments is decreasing (-10.1%), a decline also due to renovations (-9.1%) and furniture (-11.9%), a sector which however remains at very high levels: 33% of respondents plan to buy furniture in the next 3 months, almost 8 percentage points more than in pre-Covid (February 2020). Setback also in the energy efficiency segment: -11.5% for photovoltaic / solar thermal, -10.7% for thermal insulation, -10% for heat pumps, -19.7% for windows and doors and -20.5% for condensing or biomass boilers. Negative trend also in the household appliances sector: -11.8% for large companies in the last month and -2.6% for small ones. TV and Hi-fi, after the transition to the new digital terrestrial, recorded a decrease of 14.6%.
Travel and holidays “hold” thanks to the summer. Although with a limited increase of 1.1%, travel and holidays are the only segment with optimistic prospects in the next three months. With the warm season approaching, over 6 out of 10 (62.5%) Italians declare at the end of April that they want to plan a holiday or plan a trip, a positive peak in the last 12 months and a trend that is continuously improving from the easing of Covid restrictions. Lastly, purchase intentions for sports equipment and clothing (-10.5%) and do-it-yourself (-9.3%) declined.
Even “technology” has a minus sign. The purchase intentions of the technology sector have also turned negative in the last month after having remained well above pre-pandemic levels for 2 years, benefiting from a context that has prompted families to purchase technological equipment in response to new domestic needs. of smartworking, DAD and entertainment. More marked decline for tablets / e-books (-25.2%), substantial decreases also for PCs and accessories (-17.9%) and cameras and camcorders (-15.6%). Telephony suffers less, seeing a decrease in the propensity to spend by 8.8%.