Advertisement

Renzi blasts 'doomsayers' as Italy finally starts growing

The Local Italy
The Local Italy - [email protected]
Renzi blasts 'doomsayers' as Italy finally starts growing
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi trumpeted his government's achievements over the past two years. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

Italian gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.8 percent in volume last year after three years of negative growth, Istat, the national statistics agency said on Tuesday.

Advertisement

That’s slightly more than the 0.7 percent forecast by the agency in a preliminary statement in February, but less than the optimistic 0.9 percent envisaged by the government last September.

According to its provisional estimates, Istat said the country’s deficit-to-GDP was 2.6 percent in 2015, down from three percent in 2014.

Italy’s perennially listless economy is regularly scrutinized, but Prime Minister Matteo Renzi took to Facebook to dismiss the chatter of doomsayers as “pointless”, while making the jubilant announcement that “Italy is back”.

And it’s the numbers that prove it, he wrote, while citing decreasing taxes and more people in jobs.

“We are not leaving it in the hands of catastrophists who enjoy it when things go wrong,” he wrote.

Renzi trumpeted his government’s achievements over the past two years, including the so-called Jobs Act, especially when compared to his predecessors. 

“At the beginning of 2015 we forecast growth at 0.7 percent, instead we got 0.8 percent. The [Mario] Monti government closed at -2.3 percent, and the [Enrico] Letta government closed at -1.9 percent.

“The deficit fell for the first time in years to less than three percent: we reached 2.6 percent in 2015, the best result in a decade. And in 2016 it will go down further.”

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also