Milan
Italy’s economy, which plunged into recession by the coronavirus outbreak, returned to growth in the third quarter as GDP jumped 15.9 percent on the previous quarter, the national statistics agency estimated Tuesday. This is a slight downgrade on the initial estimate of 16.1 percent made by Istat in late October. While the economy rebounding strongly from the spring, when many businesses were closed, economic output was still five percent smaller than during the third quarter of 2019. In the first nine months of the year, GDP in the eurozone’s third largest economy fell by 8.3 percent. “The full estimate of the quarterly economic accounts confirms that the Italian economy, after a sharp contraction in the first quarter caused by the effects of the health crisis.—AFP
