Since the beginning of the crisis in Italy, the services sector has recorded a worse performance than those of the major economies of the Eurozone. To say it is the European Central Bank, in an analysis contained in its latest monthly bulletin.
“The services sector – reads the ECB report – in Italy has recorded the worst results since 2008. In the same country, the real added value of market and non-market services remains below pre-crisis levels. By contrast, in Germany and France the real value added of both market and non-market services has reached historically high levels in recent quarters.
After the crisis “The economic sectors showed markedly different trends. While activity in the services sector at the aggregate level has returned to pre-crisis levels, the construction sector has experienced a more protracted downsizing, which has partly corrected the previous overheating”.
Activity in the industrial sector has experienced a strong recovery from the low reached in 2009, but remains, warns the ECB, still below pre-crisis levels. The aggregate trends in the euro area are slowing down, according to the bulletin, mainly Italy and Spain.
