Eurozone and Italian economic confidence declines in September

Economic sentiment indicators show a decline in confidence across the Eurozone and Italy for September. In the Eurozone, the economic sentiment indicator fell to 97.9 from 98.4 the previous month, missing analyst expectations of 99.0. This decline is primarily driven by growing pessimism among households regarding personal finances and inflation expectations, which rose by 1.8 points in the broader EU survey.

Despite consumer pessimism, the Eurozone industrial and service sectors showed signs of improvement. Industrial confidence rose from -5.0 to -3.8 due to better production prospects, while services increased slightly to 6.1. However, employment outlooks declined from 98.8 to 97.5.

In Italy, Istat reported a cooling of sentiment as both consumer and business confidence fell in September. Consumer confidence dropped from 94.5 to 91.2, while the composite business confidence index decreased from 97.0 to 95.9, ending a three-month period of growth.