The Meat & Fish segment is seeing more cautious estimates for the current year following a lacklustre performance in the second half of 2016, with numbers of companies split equally between those reporting growth (between 0 and 5%) and those experiencing a contraction (between 0 and -5%).
In the Pasta, Bakery & Milling sector, just over half of the companies in the sample (between 62% and 64% of the total) reported an increase in sales in the second half of 2016. The assessment of the current half year period appears to be more positive, with the number of companies expecting to see increases in turnover from either exports or domestic turnover up by 15 percentage points.
The Beverage segment has experienced the opposite trend. Following an excellent performance in the second half of last year, when a significant portion of companies (more than one in five) reported sales growth of +10%, the segment has been adopting a more cautious outlook in 2017 with estimated growth revised down to between 5% and 10%.
Confectionery is the segment where the perception of growth is most widespread (apart from the 6% of companies which are forecasting declines in domestic turnover), boosted in particular by the significant increase in turnover reported by four out of five companies (81.2%) in the second half of 2016. In the Chemicals Home & Industrial segment a majority of companies gave positive assessments of their observed growth and development prospects, although a fairly large number of companies reported strongly negative forecasts for domestic sales (-10%).
The final figures for the second half of 2016 reveal strong sales growth in the Health & Personal Care segment both in Italy and abroad (> 5% for more than 40% of companies). While positive forecasts have increased, projections of very strong growth have declined.