Italian industry “continued to hold its own in terms of production” also thanks to the relative decline in the prices of non-energy raw materials and government interventions, but “there is a risk of a decline in the fourth quarter: the qualitative indicators are overall negative” . The Confindustria Study Center writes it in the note “Congiuntura Flash”, which sees a “curb on investments” in a scenario “that had already veered in a recessive direction” between the impact of record inflation on households and consumption, rate hikes and, in prospect, a “weakness in foreign demand”.
From ECB rate hike ballast on businesses
The ECB’s rate hike constitutes “another ballast on business costs” and risks “making the scenario worse, at least in the short term”. This can be read in the Congiuntura Flash of the Confindustria Study Center, which notes how the rate on BTPs “has already begun to transfer to the rates paid by companies in Italy”, which up to September increased by almost one percentage point “and seem destined to rise a lot moreover”. Furthermore, the rapid decline in company liquidity added to a debt burden which “will absorb a growing share of company turnover” is “worrisome”.