The soft patch in Italy's industrial activity has not come to an end just yet. June data released by Istat shows a 0.2% monthly increase in seasonally adjusted terms (from -0.8% in May) and a 0.9% contraction on the year for the working day adjusted measure (from -1% in May). The big aggregate breakdown has consumer goods contracting 0.9% on the month, intermediate goods up 0.2% and energy and investment goods up 0.1%. Manufacturing was flat on the month, and up 0.4% in the second quarter on the previous one. When assessing the sector performance, we prefer to check the year-to-date average for the corresponding ... (full story)