Italy enters recession

The data from the Istat statistics office shows that in the final three months of 2018, the economy shrank by 0.2 per cent, following a 0.1 per cent decline in the third quarter.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the contraction was likely to continue into 2019 amid a sharp increase in government borrowing costs and political uncertainty driven by Rome’s populist government’s stand-off with Brussels over its budget plans.

Figures relating to the wider EU context revealed economic growth in the 19-country eurozone still struggling.

Growth in the euro area remained at 0.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2018, the same as the previous quarter and in line with analysts’ expectations.

The figures, issued by the Eurostat agency, showed that in the 28-nation EU as a whole, fourth-quarter growth was 0.3 per cent.