(Bloomberg) -- Italian consumer confidence fell to the lowest since July 2015 while Prime Minister Matteo Renzi faces a key vote on Sunday that may see voters reject his constitutional reform and prompt his resignation. Manufacturing confidence also fell.
The household gauge measured 107.9 in November down from 108.0 the month before. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 11 analysts called for a reading of 107.6 this month. Manufacturing confidence dropped to 102.0 from a revised 102.9 in October, statistics agency Istat said in Rome on Monday. Executives were increasingly concerned about orders, the report also showed.
A majority of Italians said their personal economic conditions were either good or very good this year, Istat said in a separate report last week. It was the first time since 2007 that that happened. While that report was seen as boding well for premier Renzi, the latest economic indications ahead of Sunday's referendum might weigh on voters' intentions. Industrial orders and sales fell in September on a monthly basis. Retail sales also unexpectedly declined in that month.
In his almost three years in power, Renzi has faced the double challenge of maintaining the budget discipline required by European Union fiscal rules while trying to boost the country's economic recovery, which remains behind the region's average.
Italy expanded 0.3 percent in the third quarter, as growth resumed after stalling in the previous three months, according to preliminary reading. Istat will release the final gross-domestic-product figure for the period on Thursday.
On that day, Istat will also release its monthly labor-market report, with the unemployment rate projected by the economists to have declined slightly in October, while remaining over 11.5 percent.
--With assistance from Giovanni Salzano To contact the reporter on this story: Lorenzo Totaro in Rome at ltotaro@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Kevin Costelloe, Chiara Albanese
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