Italy: Industrial output growth wanes in June
Industrial output increased 0.5% month-on-month in seasonally-adjusted terms in June (May: +1.7% mom). June’s slowdown was partly driven by a deterioration in manufacturing production growth. In addition, mining and quarrying output fell.
On an annual basis, factory output fell 0.8% in June, which was significantly better than May’s 3.5% fall and marked the best result since January. Moreover, the trend improved slightly, with the annual average variation of industrial production coming in at minus 1.9%, up from May’s minus 2.0%.
Commenting on the outlook, Paolo Pizzoli, senior economist at ING, stated:
“Industry looks set to remain a growth drag in the third quarter, but possibly less than it was in the second. The onus of growth will likely rest on services and construction, benefiting in turn from a good tourism season and the final rush to complete works benefiting from generous tax incentives. We believe that the combination of these factors will allow a return to modest positive GDP growth in the third quarter. The Italian economy might thus manage to avoid a technical recession, but, for the time being, can hardly do better than stagnation.”