According to the report from the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), in December industrial sales fell by 2.1% after an increase by 2.4% in November. Economists had expected sales to grow by 0.5%. Sales in the domestic market fell by 3.1% compared to November, while sales in the foreign market decreased by 0.2%.
ISTAT reported that in annual terms, industrial sales increased by 3% in December, while an increase of 13.3% was recorded in the domestic market. As for the foreign market, sales increased by 16.4%.
The data also showed that in the fourth quarter, industrial sales grew by 3.9% in quarterly terms. As for sales in the foreign market, they increased by 3.4%, while sales in the domestic market jumped by 4.3%.