MILANO – The Italian economy stalls and puts it in reverse. According to data released today byState il Pil in the second quarter it decreased by 0.3% compared to the previous quarter, from +0.6% in the first quarter, and increased by 0.6% in trend terms. The discontinuity of the economic trend in the second quarter – comments the Institute of Statistics – is faced by the positive evolution of the GDP in tendential terms in an amount of 0.6%, which represents the tenth consecutive quarterly growth”.
An indication of a slowdown that confirms the fears expressed a few days ago by Confindustria, which however forecast zero growth for the second quarter of the year, in line with many forecasters, while the data communicated today is significantly worse.
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The backward step of the economy also erodes the growth acquired up to now, ie the figure that would be reached at the end of the year in the event of zero variation in the next two quarters. In the light of today’s data, still a preliminary estimate, the data acquired stops at +0.8%, however already close to the prudent +0.9% indicated in the Def in April.
Downturn for industry, services are growing
The negative result, further highlights Istat in its note, “is due to a decrease in both the primary and industrial sectors, against a moderate growth in the services sector. On the demand side, the decline comes from the national component gross of inventories, with the net foreign component providing a zero contribution”.
Inflation slows down in July
The indications coming from the prices with theinflation which in July slowed down to 6% from 6.4% in June, with a cyclical increase of 0.1%. Slight slowdown even of the so-called shopping cart, the basket of food and household and personal care products, which fell from +10.5% to +10.4%. In its comment note, Istat points out that this is the fifth consecutive month of “attenuation” of the trolley trend dynamics. The same trend also for products with a high frequency of purchase, which increased from +5.7% to +5.6%. “The dynamics of inflation, still strongly influenced by the evolution of the prices of energy goods, also reflects the slowdown on a trend basis in the prices of processed food products and services”, underlines the institute.
In detail, the strongest deceleration is noted in the prices of transport-related services (from +4.7% to +2.4%), unregulated energy goods (from +8.4% to +7.0%) and, to a lesser extent, processed food (+11.5% to +10.9%). Decreases only partially offset by the rise in prices of unprocessed food (from +9.4% to +10.4%) and services related to housing (from +3.5% to +3.6%).
However, the slowdown is received coldly by the world of consumers. “A miserable and negligible drop. Inflation on an annual basis is decreasing with a dropper and only because it had previously increased even more, but the worst figure is that while the economic situation had finally stopped in June, now it is rising again by 0.1%”, comments the president of theUnion Consumer nation Maximilian Dona. “In short, the prices, already lunar and which have now bankrupted millions of families, continue to grow. Food products, for example, on an annual basis go from +11% in June to +10.9% in July, but in just one month they go up by 0.2%”, continues Dona “We are registering further signs of a slowdown in the growth of prices compared to previous months. However, consumption is still weak, especially as regards sales volumes in the food sector, due to the acquired price level and the uncertainty that characterized the past few months”, commented the president of Federdistribuzione Carlo Alberto Buttarelli, President of Federdistribuzione.