The Italian economy slows down and travels towards stagnation. After cutting growth prospects of our country that arrived yesterday from the International Monetary Fund, today the Bank of Italy confirms that the road to recovery is still long. From the latest statistical bulletin of Via Nazionale ("The Italian economy in brief") it emerges that for a year now national demand has been continuously declining.
If in the last two quarters of 2010 the figure was still in positive territory (respectively of 2,8 and 2,7%), since the beginning of this year the situation has worsened dramatically: between January and March there was a contraction of 0,5%, which widened further between April and June, to reach a much more worrying -2,4%. The same goes for exports and imports of goods and services, which literally collapsed in the space of twelve months. In the third quarter of 2010, the two statistics were still very positive (respectively at +12 and +18%), but the latest data available, those relating to the period April-June of this year, reveal a dramatic drop above all on the imports, down by 8,8%.
Exports are holding up better, albeit largely reduced, with a growth of 3,6%. The debt crisis and fears of possible contagion from Greece took their toll on the government bond front. The trend in interest on ten-year bonds was significant, which in the first eight months of this year grew by over half a percentage point, going from 4,73% in January to 5,27% in August, after reaching a peak of 5,46 .35,8% on average in July. Finally, the balance of payments also worsens, which in the January-July period showed a deficit of 29,6 billion, up on the 2010 recorded in the same period of XNUMX.
