Italy: a more stable FMCG market since last year

Italy is Hungary’s third biggest export market for food products, 9 percent of our food export ends up there. Last year we sold groceries in the value of EUR 718 million in the Italian market – 1 percent more than in 2014. In the last 9 quarters FMCG retail sales trends developed like a rollercoaster ride in Italy. Consumer mood was less optimistic than the European average or in Hungary: Nielsen measured the lowest consumer confidence index at 39 points in Q4 2012, but since then the index has been rising, reaching 61 points in Q4 2015 (in Q4 2015 Hungary was at 63 points and the European average was 81 points).

Italian families spend 22 percent of their income on food and they spend a further 5 percent on eating in bars and restaurants; 21 percent of their budget goes to utility costs (Q4 2015) – the same averages in Europe are 20 percent, 5 percent and 23 percent, respectively. In Italy 64 percent of the Nielsen survey’s respondents claimed they had changed their spending habits in order to economise in the last year. However, only every second of these consumers switched to cheaper groceries. At a European level what we see is that 57 percent of consumers have started to economise, cutting down on their spending on clothes, out of home entertainment and food – in this order. /