The survey was conducted between 21 February and 19 March 2025 among Italian industrial and service firms with 50 or more employees. As of this round, the sample has been expanded from 1,500 to 2,500 units.
In the first quarter of this year, firms' perceptions of a deterioration in both the current overall economic environment and their own short-term business conditions continued to prevail. However, assessments of sales trends for the current and the next quarter improved, particularly in manufacturing, driven by foreign demand. Employment is also expected to grow across all sectors in the next quarter, with largely moderate wage increases. Uncertainty and concerns over the direct or indirect effects of US trade policies are weighing on the business outlook for the current year.
In construction, assessments of demand and business conditions remain more upbeat than in the rest of the economy, though there was a slowdown in business for firms operating mainly in residential building.
While firms still consider investment conditions unfavourable, they expect nominal investment spending to rise in 2025, in line with their forecasts in the previous survey round. Assessments of access to credit are stable and the liquidity position is deemed adequate overall.
Firms' selling prices over the last 12 months rose at a marginally faster pace in industry and slowed down in services and construction; price growth is predicted to remain moderate as a whole over the next 12 months. Firms' expectations for consumer price inflation rose across all time horizons, although they remained below 2 per cent.
