After eight years of economic
losses including one of the longest recessions on record,
Italian business and consumer confidence are finally rebounding,
national statistics agency Istat said Monday.
The country has not reported any real expansion since at
least 2008 and the start of a global crisis that hit Italy
especially hard as it slashed demand for Italian products and
sent interest rates sky high.
As Italy plunged deeper into recession, unemployment soared
and that, in turn, shattered consumer and business confidence.
But in a dramatic reversal, Istat said that Italian
consumer confidence actually jumped this month to its highest
level since May 2002.
The agency said its measure of the mood of consumers and
their level of confidence increased to 110.9 in March from 107.7
in February.
That included measures of confidence in the economy in
general as well as consumers' feelings towards their present
situation and outlook for the future.
Consumer confidence is considered important to the broader
economy because people tend to curtail their borrowing and spend
less when they are pessimistic about the economic climate.
Particularly important was Istat's reading of rising
confidence in the employment picture, which is crucial to
consumer confidence.
Istat said that the balance concerning expectations on
unemployment dropped dramatically to -3 from a previous 10.
That is a sharp change in an economy where unemployment has
doubled since the start of the economic crisis in 2008.
The latest figures showed the Italian jobless rate stands
at 12.6% after peaking at 13.4% last year.
Meanwhile, the Istat business confidence index leaped to
its highest level since July 2008, reaching 103 points in March,
up from 97.5 in February.
That increase in confidence was reported across all
business sectors, including manufacturing where the outlook rose
to 103.7 points from 100.5 points - the highest level since June
2011.
Economists have been pushing higher their outlook for the
Italian economy this year and while none are extraordinarily
optimistic, the forecasts call for recovery and turnaround from
years of negative figures.
Last year, the Italian economy shrank by 0.4%.
Experts, from the Bank of Italy to the OECD, say the
country's gross domestic product will expand by an average of
about 0.5% to 0.6% this year.
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