Italy GDP to shrink further as recovery drags

The official Istat agency said it expected the recession – Italy's longest recession since the Second World War – to end only in the fourth quarter with a modest uptick in growth.

However, it also forecast that the economy will switch into growth, expanding by 0.7 percent in 2014 thanks to internal and external demand, but it said unemployment — which often lags in a recovery – would rise to 12.4 percent.