European businesses are seeing black: faith plummets and investments decrease

All progress made from last year is lost above all in Germany, France and Italy. According to National Institute of Statistics, businesses have not been this pessimistic for 10 years

They look at the future with increasing concern and have also lost the little bit of faith recovered in the last few months. European businesses continue to see black: the indicator of economic expectations clearly demonstrates it – in April it plummeted: according to the data diffused by the European Commission in fact, the index decreased by 1.8 points in the entire union and by 1.5 points just in the Euro zone. With drops of this magnitude we return to the levels of last December, losing all the progress made in the last months of continual upturn. Today in the EU the economic index of 27 stops at 89.7% versus 91.5 in March.

The most consistent reductions are registered in the 5 most developed economies: Germany (-2.3 points), France (-2) and Italy (-1.9). The decrease in faith, highlights Brussels, concerns all sectors (-1.5 for business) with the only exception of faith by consumers.

Regarding Italy, alarming data arrives also from ISTAT that indicates businesses haven’t been this discouraged in these parts for 10 years. In April 2013 the composite index measuring expectations for our businesses fell from 78.5 in March to 74.6. This fall brings the bar to the lowest level since January 2003, the historical beginning date of the series. Cynicism advances in the manufacturing sector, in market services and construction, while faith improves in retail marketing.

And it will also be connected to this lack of faith if European businesses are inclined to invest less and less. The confirmation arrives from the fact that Eurostat referred in the last quarter of 2012 when investments fell to 19.7% in the Euro area. The decrease, explains Eurostat, results from a more pronounced decrease in investments compared to the added-value ones.

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