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WORLD NEWS Friday 1 February 2019
Italy slides into recession, darkening outlook for Europe

MILAN (AP) — Italy has fall- It expanded by 1.8 percent the faith of bond market and China, which he says He said that could mean
en back into recession, in- in 2018 overall, its weak- investors. has weighed on Italian ex- the government will have
tensifying concerns about est rate in four years. That's Though most economists ports. to adjust its spending plans.
the 19-country eurozone lower than had been an- think the budget impasse "This is a transitory factor," Italy hasn't been the only
economy and a possible ticipated a year ago, when with the Commission has he told reporters in Rome. reason why the eurozone
flare-up in the debt mar- the bloc was expected to undermined confidence The head of Italy's UNC slowed in 2019. Germany,
ket jitters that haunted the slow only slightly from 2017's in the Italian economy, consumer advocate or- Europe's biggest econ-
bloc in recent years. strong 2.4 percent rate. the country's premier, Gi- ganization, Massimiliano omy, suffered an unex-
The Italian economy, the The Italian economy has useppe Conte, sought to Dona, said the weak figures pected contraction in the
third-largest in the euro- become an acute source downplay the recession raise questions over the Ital- third quarter largely due
zone, contracted by a of concern over the past and placed the blame ian government's predic- to changes in emissions
quarterly rate of 0.2 per- few months, partly as a firmly on the trade spat tion that the economy will standards that hurt auto
cent in the fourth quarter of result of the new populist between the United States grow by 1 percent in 2019. sales.q

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte delivers his speech during the
inauguration ceremony of the ACSD (Africa Center for Climate
and Sustainable Development) in Rome, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019.
Associated Press

2018, the national statistics government's spat with the
agency said. European Union's executive
Following a 0.1 percent Commission over its budget
drop in the previous three- plans, which has under-
month period that means mined business confidence
Italy is in a technical reces- and seen Italian borrowing
sion, defined as two straight rates in bond markets spike
quarters of economic con- higher.
traction — just four years af- The government, elected
ter its last one. against the backdrop of
Italy's recession is one rea- economic disappoint-
son why the wider euro- ment after years — even
zone slowed in 2018, along decades — of stagnant
with uncertainties related growth, wants to ramp up
to Brexit, the China-U.S. spending to get the econ-
trade spat and new vehi- omy going. It wants to pro-
cle emissions standards. vide more social security
Though the eurozone is per- payments and to roll back
forming better than in the a pension reform.
dark days of the debt crisis, The plan means Italy would
which threatened to break not reduce its debt load,
up the euro currency, it's still which at over 130 percent
lagging the U.S. economy, is the highest in Europe af-
which is projected to have ter Greece.
grown about 3 percent The EU Commission is still
in 2018. As a result, unem- haunted by the memory
ployment in the eurozone of the debt crisis, which
is about double the U.S.'s 4 required eurozone govern-
percent at 7.9 percent. ments, along with some
The eurozone economy as assistance from the Inter-
a whole grew by a mea- national Monetary Fund, to
ger 0.2 percent in the final bailout a number of coun-
quarter, the same as in the tries. The Commission has
previous quarter, accord- insisted that the Italian gov-
ing to provisional figures ernment rein back on its
released Thursday by the spending plans lest it loses
Eurostat statistics agency. control of its budget and