Italy is officially back in recession. According to the preliminary estimates published this morning by Istat, Italy's gross domestic product fell by 0,2% in the second quarter compared to the January-March period and by 0,3% on an annual basis. This is the second cyclical downturn after the -0,1% recorded in the first quarter: a sequence that sanctions the return to a recessionary phase at a technical level.
“The cyclical decline is the synthesis of a decrease in added value in all three major sectors of economic activity; agriculture, industry and services”, writes the Institute of Statistics, also specifying that the contribution of net exports was negative, while that of domestic demand was nil.
In the second quarter, the real value of GDP was equal to 340,196 billion: the lowest level since the second quarter of 2000. The decrease acquired for 2014, assuming no change in GDP in the coming quarters, is equal to -0,3, XNUMX%.
After the release of these data, Piazza Affari accelerated negatively, with the Ftse Mib losing more than two percentage points, Europe's black jersey (Frankfurt -1,1%, Paris and London -0,9%) . On the bond front, the spread between 10-year Italian BTPs and the corresponding German Bunds rose up to 166 basis points.
