As agreed at the European level, Istat releases the new series of national accounts based on the most updated versions of the classification of economic activities (Ateco 2007, the national version of Nace Rev. 2) and of products by activity (CPA 2008).
At the same time, as in other European countries, the time series of national accounts have been subjected to an extraordinary revision, exploiting advances in methods and sources (e.g. the new balance of payments estimates issued by the Bank of Italy).
In 2008, the benchmark year of the revision, GDP at current prices has been revalued by 0.5% compared to the previous estimate. In the 2000-2010 decade, the average yearly growth rate of GDP at current prices amounted to 2.6%, that is 0.1 percentage points lower than the rate based on the former time series.
In the same decade, the average yearly growth rate of GDP in volume equals 0.4%, 0.2 percentage points higher than the former estimate. GDP growth in 2004-2007 looks faster, while the 2008-2009 downturn is slightly downsized.
In the 2000-2010 decade, domestic demand in volume (consumption and investment) shows a similar pattern compared to the previous estimates. On the other hand, the update of price indicators used for the deflation of foreign trade flows has determined a significant upward revision of growth both in export (from -0.2% to 1.2% average yearly rate) and in import (from 1.0% to 2.0%).
In the same decade, value added in volume in industry (including energy) and construction show more marked fluctuations compared to the previous estimates, while the dynamics of services is substantially unchanged.
While the estimate of labour input at the aggregate level is unchanged, a detailed reclassification by economic activity has been performed.
In the next months, the transition to the new nomenclatures will be completed with the backward data of annual and quarterly time series, of regional accounts, and of accounts by institutional sector.