Energy Costs Impacting Industrial Recovery Prospects: Confindustria

Rome: Industrial employers federation Confindustria reported on Wednesday an improvement in the outlook of major industries, adding however that high energy costs were impacting production costs and could hamper recovery.

According to Ansa News Agency, the association’s research centre registered in January “an improvement in the outlook of major industrial companies associated to Confindustria” with “over one-fourth of the enterprises interviewed (28.7%) expecting industrial production to expand compared to the last quarter of 2024”.

“Most businesses are continuing to estimate a stable production (59.9%) and only 11.4% of those interviewed are expecting either a significant or moderate contraction”, said the analysis, highlighting that “production costs continue to concern major industrial companies, in connection to the marked increase of energy costs”. Production levels were expected to improve compared to December (-0.5%) but to remain negative (-2.8%), Confindustria said.

A decline in industrial revenue was less significant but continued, according to the analysis. The ‘Real Time Turnover Index’ of the economists of via dell’Astronomia, which records on a monthly basis the dynamics of the volume of activity based on the turnover detected on the sample of client companies of TeamSystem, “registered a moderate drop in December (-1.2%)”, which remained negative but was a stark improvement from the -3.4% recorded in November”.

The indicator showed reductions in services and industry, while construction continued to grow. Thanks to a very positive result in October the index “suggests an increase in revenue for the fourth trimester after a drop in the third”, said Confindustria.