At the sectoral level, growing orders are recorded for pharmaceuticals (+2.2). The general data, however, indicates, the worst drop since October 2013.
by Carlo Andrea Finotto – 22 September 2014 – The sun24 HOURS
Down the turnover and also the orders of the industry. In other words: the present is going badly but it won't get much better in the coming months, given that the turnover records the state of the art and the orders are, so to speak, the hay that will enter the farmhouse in a while.
Orders fell in July by 1.5% cyclical (seasonally adjusted index) and 0.7% yoy (raw index). Revenue fell 1% quarter-on-year and 1.3% year-on-year, the worst decline since October 2013. The communicates Istat. In seven months, according to raw data, orders have marked +1.7% and turnover +0.1%.
Going back to July, the foreign component of revenues did not do well either, which at the economic level fell by 1.4% against -0.9% for the whole component; while on a tendential level, a narrow +0.5% (-2.2% internal revenues) was recorded. For orders, the undisputed reign, as mentioned, of the "minus" sign, at the economic level driven downwards precisely by orders from across the border (-2.1% against -0.9% for internal ones), while at the trend level the two components the declines were more contained: -0.5% for foreign orders and -0.8% for domestic ones.
At the sectoral level (the Istat surveys are in this case exclusively tendential), there is an increase in orders, even sharply, for means of transport (+12.8%) and for electronics (+7.7%), which electrical appliances are added (+4.8%) e pharmaceuticals (+2.2). The rest of the sectors are marked by declining orders, with negative peaks for machinery (-6.2%) and chemical products (-6%). In the field of turnover, the "plus" signs once again concern means of transport and electronics (+5.8% and +7.8% respectively), but the textile and clothing industries are also in positive territory, as are pharmaceuticals (+4.5% and +1.1%). Refining (-10.4%) and extractive activities (-8.6%) fell sharply. Also down are chemicals (-5.6%), metallurgy (-3) and rubber-plastic (-2.6%).
The prevalence of minus signs is nothing new. The data released today follow those released two months ago, at the end of July, when the surveys showed that in May the turnover had fallen by 1% on April and increased by 0.1% on May 2013. Orders went even worse, which fell by 2.1% from April and 2.5% from May 2013.
There are two main sources of concern regarding the data released by Istat: on the one hand, the progressive deterioration of the performance of our businesses across borders: exports and internationalization were until a few months ago the real and perhaps the only salvation of Italian manufacturing. Now it seems that in some cases this too is showing signs of slowing down, while there are still no comforting signs in sight on the internal market front. The other aspect, closely linked but more "particular", concerns the machinery sector, one of the peaks of excellence of the Made in Italy industry, able to compete on equal terms with Germany which it contends for world leadership, but which lately it has been marking time and registering disturbing negative indicators.
The release of the GDP data scheduled for 11 am will be delayed due to the protest of the Istat temporary workers who are currently occupying the institute's press room, where the journalists were waiting for the briefing on the related statistical survey.
