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Italy's Industrial Output Unexpectedly Rises for Second Month

Italy's Industrial Output Unexpectedly Rises for Second Month

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Italy’s industrial output unexpectedly increased for a second month, signaling that the nation’s economic contraction of the previous quarters might have come to an end.

Production rose 0.9 percent following a 1.9 percent jump in January, statistics institute Istat said Wednesday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected a 0.8 percent drop, according to the median of 17 forecasts.

Italy's Industrial Output Unexpectedly Rises for Second Month

The euro region’s third-biggest economy slipped into a technical recession late last year amid a decline in inventories and a fall in business confidence. Istat’s leading indicator for March has also suggested that that the economy might be headed toward the end of the slump, though any growth is likely to be modest.

The populist government in Rome targets annual output growth of just 0.2 percent this year, according to the new economic and financial outlook passed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

What Bloomberg’s Economists Say

“It’s been a long time coming, but we can now say the incoming data from Italy creates an upside risk for our GDP forecast. The second consecutive monthly advance in industrial production, in addition to the recent improvement in the PMI surveys, provides increasing confidence that Italy pulled out of recession in the first quarter.”

David Powell, senior euro-area economist
Click here for the full report.

From a year earlier, Italy’s industrial production rose 0.9 percent in February on a work-day adjusted basis. Separately on Wednesday, France also reported an increase in industrial production for February. The 0.4 percent growth beat forecasts for a 0.5 percent decline.

--With assistance from Giovanni Salzano and Harumi Ichikura.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lorenzo Totaro in Rome at ltotaro@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten

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