ROME (Reuters) – The Italian economy stagnated in the fourth quarter of last year from the previous three months, preliminary data showed on Thursday, missing a forecast for marginal growth and casting a shadow over prospects for this year.
On a year-on-year basis, fourth quarter gross domestic product in the euro zone’s third largest economy was up 0.5%, national statistics bureau ISTAT said.
A Reuters survey of 29 economists had forecast a 0.1% rise quarter-on-quarter and a 0.6% increase year-on-year.
Over the whole of 2024, the economy grew by 0.5% from the year earlier, when adjusted for the number of working days, ISTAT said.
The most recent official forecast by Giorgia Meloni’s government envisaged 2024 growth of 1%, but that projection was not adjusted for working days. ISTAT will release non-workday-adjusted growth data on March 3.
There were four more days worked last year than in 2023, so the March 3 data may show higher growth than the figure released on Thursday.
ISTAT confirmed its previous data for the third quarter at flat quarter-on-quarter, but revised up the year-on-year growth rate to 0.5% from 0.4%.
The statistics bureau gave the following details on Italian GDP in the last three quarters of 2024:
Q4 Q3 Q2
Q/Q (pct change) 0.0p 0.0 0.2
Y/Y (pct change) 0.5p 0.5r 0.7
p=preliminary
r=revised
(Reporting By Gavin Jones)
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