Total orders for industry in Italy fell 1.8 percent from a month earlier in December 2018, following an upwardly revised 0.4 percent decline in the previous month and well below market expectations of a 0.5 percent gain. It was the fourth consecutive decrease in new orders, as foreign demand dropped (-7.4 percent compared to 0.9 percent in November) while domestic demand rebounded (2.5 percent compared to -1.3 percent). Year-on-year, new factory orders went down 5.3 percent, after an upwardly revised 2.2 percent decline in November and below market consensus of a 2.3 percent increase. Meantime, industrial sales fell 7.3 percent from the previous year and dropped 3.5 percent from the prior month. Factory Orders in Italy averaged 0.24 percent from 1990 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 14.30 percent in August of 1994 and a record low of -12.30 percent in November of 2008.
Factory Orders in Italy is expected to be 2.50 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Factory Orders in Italy to stand at 0.80 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Italy Industrial New Orders is projected to trend around 0.70 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.