Premier Matteo Renzi on
Tuesday hailed better-than-expected GDP and jobs data, saying
they showed his structural economic reforms were working to
speed up a sluggish recovery from years of stagnation.
But employers' chief Giorgio Squinzi was less happy,
saying they were due to external factors and were "not enough".
Trade union leader Susanna Camusso took both the premier
and the Confindustria head to task for dealing in what she
called "propaganda".
GDP rose by 0.3% in the second quarter of 2015 over the
first quarter and by 0.7% over the second quarter of 2014, Istat
said Tuesday, raising its mid-August estimates from 0.2% and
0.5% respectively.
It was the biggest year-on-year rise in four years, since
the second quarter of 2011.
The Italian economy will have an acquired GDP gain of 0.6%
this year - that is, if there is no change in the last half of
the year - Istat said, raising its mid-August preliminary
estimate from 0.4%.
Italy's unemployment rate fell to 12% in July, its lowest
for exactly two years, Istat said.
It was 0.5% down on June 2015 and 0.9% down on July 2014,
Istat said.
The fall came after two straight monthly gains.
Italian youth unemployment (15-24) fell 2.5% from 43% in
June to 40.5% in July, Istat said.
It was 2.6% lower than July 2014, Istat said.
It is the lowest rate since July 2013.
Italy's employment rate rose 0.2% in July over June and by
1.1% over July 2014, Istat said.
The employment rate rose to 56.3%, its highest since
November 2012.
A yearly rise in steady jobs continued at a "brisker pace"
in the second quarter of 2015, up 0.7% or 106,000 units, Istat
said.
"The increase concerns the over-50s and regards above all
women, the service sector, the centre and the south," Istat
said.
Renzi hailed the figures.
"GDP grows, jobs grow, less unemployment, reforms (have
been shown to be) useful," he tweeted, adding "everyone has
their own political ideas but let's give a hand together so that
Italy will return to growth".
Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan was also happy, saying
the Italian economy was travelling the right way.
"With reasonable and reliable estimates public finances
are under control and allow us to boost the recovery", he said.
"The economy is growing, unemployment is falling, the
employed are up.
"Now we must consolidate and accelerate, but the direction
is right".
But Squinzi, head of the industrial employers'
organisation Confindustria, took a dimmer view.
"The 0.3% GDP growth is not enough, also because it is not
our merit but due only to the halving of oil prices, the
strengthening of the dollar and QE (quantitative easing)," he
said.
In Squinzi's view, "we haven't cleaned house, we have to
achieve reforms, only that way can we get the country moving
again".
Camusso, secretary-general of Italy's biggest and most
leftwing trade union CGIL, told Renzi and Squinzi to "come
back down to Earth".
Camusso said "if they would stop with the propaganda, the
country could seize the opportunities that seem to be
appearing".
"Today we're at the height of a premier who boasts of
results already reached and surpassed by (premiers Mario) Monti
before and (Enrico) Letta after, and a Confindustria president
who asks why growth is so low".
"They had told a completely different story, the
Confindustria president who assured copious investments and mass
hirings in exchange for freedom to sack workers, while the
premier assured that his reforms would have guaranteed a dynamic
and innovative entrepreneurial class capable of hiring and with
growth prospects," Camusso said.
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