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Bloomberg
Italian manufacturing confidence in August fell to the lowest since early last year, as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi struggles with a stagnant economy compounded by the massive destruction from last week’s deadly earthquake. Consumer confidence also fell.
The business manufacturing gauge dropped to 101.1 in August, the lowest since Feb. 2015, from 102.9 the previous month. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 102.5. Confidence among households plunged to 109.2, the lowest in more than a year, from 111.2 the month before, statistics agency Istat said Monday in Rome.
The earthquake that killed at least 290 people in central Italy hit as the premier already faces criticism for Italy’s economic stagnation in the second quarter, and rising public debt as he faces a referendum in the fall that could decide his political future. A survey last month by the IPR Marketing Institute showed 52% of respondents opposed Renzi’s proposed
reform, with 48% in favour.