Monthly report on Italian economy no

World trade and global industrial production have remained on a recovery path. In addition, the Brent prices have been showing a marked increase over the last few months.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Italian Gross Domestic Product decreased by 1.9% with respect to the previous quarter but the carry-over for 2021 is positive (+2.3%).

Households’ consumption experimented a marked decrease in Q4 driven by reduction of expenditures for services, clothing and shoes.

In Q4, the drop in economic activity has been related to a reduction of hours worked but firm’s expectations on employment have showed positive signals over the last month.

In February, inflation increased further thanks to the mitigation of energy deflationary trend and a generalised increase in core inflation.

Latest data on confidence improved in February. The increase in business confidence was larger than that of consumers and was broad based.