Consumer confidence hits low point in Italy

Italy’s grocery retail sales dropped in both value and volume in the 4th quarter of 2014. According to Jean-Jacques Vandenheede, Nielsen’s retail insights director in Europe, Europe’s growth was hold back by the ‘big five’, the five biggest markets in the EU which don’t do very well – Italy is one of these. In 2014 Italy’s consumer confidence was developing as follows: Q2 – 51 points, Q3 – 47 points, Q4 – 45 points. If a country scores below 100 points consumers are pessimistic and between 100 and 200 points they are optimistic – in Europe only Denmark was above 100, with 103 points. In Q4 2014 only 18 percent of Italian consumers had a positive view of their financial prospects for the year to come and 78 percent said it wasn’t so good or it was bad. Job prospects: 6 percent of Italians were optimistic about them and 78 were pessimistic. When asked about their willingness to purchase, 11 percent’s response was positive and 88 percent gave a negative answer. Italy’s retail structure is rather fragmented. There are three Italian-owned chains among the top 5 retailers: Coop Italia has the highest turnover, Conad is number two in the ranking and Esselunga is the fourth; Auchan is ranked third and Carrefour is fifth, while Lidl managed to make it into the top 10.