Submit your comments on this article |
Europe |
Italy's Economy Enters Second Recession in Two Years |
2005-05-12 |
Italy's economy, Europe's fourth- biggest, unexpectedly fell into recession for the second time in two years as industrial production slumped and consumers failed to respond to 6 billion euros ($7.7 billion) in tax cuts. Gross domestic product shrank 0.5 percent in the first quarter, the steepest drop in six years, after a contraction of 0.4 percent in the previous three months, statistics office Istat said in Rome today. Economists forecast growth of 0.2 percent, according to the median of 30 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. ``These numbers are disasterous,'' said Maurizio Binelli, head economist at Abaxbank SpA in Milan, who had predicted growth of 0.1 percent. ``Consumer demand has been weak as has investment. This is bad news for the economy, which will probably grow less than 1 percent this year.'' Although the German economy did relatively well in the last Q. The European economy looks like it is going to get a lot worse. |
Posted by:phil_b |
#4 Look for more Euro trade missions to and more ass-kissing of Iran. |
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-05-12 17:11 |
#3 The typical euro response would be to ramp up trade promotion efforts in Heaven forbid that they would actually seek to stimulate growth by liberalizing markets and enabling startups. |
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-05-12 17:10 |
#2 Germany is already doing it and blaming it all on the evil Amis. Shows they have learned nothing. This time no US blood for western Europe. |
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-05-12 17:03 |
#1 As much as I like to gloat over the failure of socialism, I fear the Europians will not learn from this. Instead of opening up to a free market economy, I fear they will go back to the nationalist socialist model they can't seem to get away from when all hell breaks loose. |
Posted by: mmurray821 2005-05-12 10:48 |