Standard and Poor's cut its estimate of Italian GDP in 2014, bringing it to zero from the +0,5% expected in June. This is what we read in a report by the creditworthiness assessment agency, which specifies that at the end of the second quarter, the Italian GDP accumulated a -0,3% carry-over effect from the first part of the year, i.e. how the average growth would be for the year if GDP were to remain unchanged in the third and fourth quarters.
This is the most extensive revision among the main Eurozone countries, S&P points out, also explaining that the carry-over effect throughout the second quarter is the most negative among the big European countries (all the others are in positive territory). "Our previous assessments - writes S&P - have somewhat overestimated the effect of three factors", first of all the stimulus measures announced in March by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and which "to date have had no effect on spending patterns” of Italians.