Italy's business confidence has fallen to a record low, confirming fears of a prolonged recession, said a leading Italian think-tank on Monday.
In a report released on Monday, the Institute for Studies and Economic Analyses (ISAE) said its business confidence index fell to 66.6 points in December, down from 71.6 points in November.
It was the lowest estimate of business confidence recorded by the ISAE since the index was introduced in 1991, Italian News Agency ADNKRONOS reported on Monday.
The ISAE report was entitled "The confidence of manufacturing businesses falls to historical lows in December."
"Businesses are confirming the difficulties they are having with access to credit that already emerged in inquiries last month," the report said.
"Around 13 percent of businesses that had recent contact with the banks did not get the finance they expected."
Confidence also fell regionally, from 67.6 to 63.8 in the country's northwest, from 71.4 to 63.1 in the northeast and from 80.0 to 75.8 in central Italy.
According to the Rome-based institute's research, the crisis extends to all the main productive sectors of the Eurozone's third-largest economy.
Confidence in investment products has fallen from 65.7 to 62, while confidence in consumer goods dropped from 82.5 to 78.9.
The latest data was gathered from a research conducted with 4,000 companies, and covered the period from Dec. 1 to 18.
The International Monetary Fund said in October that Italy was already suffering its fourth recession in 10 years and that its economy would continued to shrink amid the global financial crisis and credit crunch.
Source:Xinhua
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