Consumption, home expenses are growing but engines are collapsing

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Home purchases (+2.6%) keep the durable goods market afloat, offsetting, at least in part, the collapse of the motor sector (-6.2%). According to data from the Findomestic 2022 Observatory, created in collaboration with Prometeia, household spending on durable goods at the end of the year will reach 69.1 billion euros with a 2% contraction compared to 2021, attributable to a reduction in volumes ( -7.6%) only partially offset by the growth in prices (+6.1%). The best performances are recorded in the telephony sector, with a surge in turnover of 7.1% thanks to the record increase in prices of 11%, and in the mobile sector, with an increase of 4.8% favored by 7 percent inflation.

Household appliances are also growing: +4.4% for large ones and +2.2% for small ones, also in this case thanks to the growing dynamics of prices which offset the decline in volumes. The only positive voice in the field of mobility concerns motor vehicles, up by 2.7 per cent. On the other hand, the other expenditure items decreased: -3.4% used cars, -7.2% information technology, -10.6% new cars (private demand) and -12.2% for TV/Hi-Fi. “Italians have reacted to the inflation emergency and the climate of uncertainty by investing in the domestic dimension, as already happened in 2020 and 2021 in the wake of the pandemic crisis”, comments Gilles Zeitoun, CEO and CEO of Findomestic Banca. “According to our estimates, goods related to the home will reach a value of 34 billion, one step away from the 35 billion of the motor world”.

The retreat towards the family sphere also emerges from the analysis relating to the first nine months of the year of the trends in the key segments that restore the image of the home as a refuge environment: +8.9% of refrigerators, +14.1% % of hobs, +18.8% of living room furniture, +26.4% of water filters and 49.5% of fryers tell of a strengthened centrality of the kitchen and living room, essential comfort zones of an increasingly multifunctional domestic space. The regions that show better resilience compared to the generalized negative trend are Tuscany, with a drop of 0.7% compared to 2021 for a total of 5.1 billion in spending, and Lombardy, which limits the decline to 0.9% and remains the queen of consumption with a total of 13.7 billion. On the other hand, bringing up the rear are Basilicata (-5% for 500 million), the Marches (-3.9% for 1.7 billion).