In the first quarter of 2023, Italy’s GDP grew beyond forecasts: up 0.6%

In the first quarter of 2023, Italy’s GDP grew more than expected. Istat certified it in the note published this morning. It was the same Institute of Statistics to estimate, last April, a growth of 0.5 percent compared to the previous quarter. But on closer inspection, the growth was even higher, at 0.6 percent. At the same time, trend growth also improved, i.e. measured with respect to the same period last year: from plus 1.8 of the estimates it went to plus 1.9 per cent.

If we take into account the macroeconomic data released by other countries, we note that Italy’s GDP growth is higher than that of countries such as France (up 0.2 per cent), the United States (up 0.3 per cent ) and Germany, which technically ended up in a recession given that in the last quarter the GDP here contracted by 0.3 percent between January and March (after having dropped by 0.5 percent between October and December 2022). Among the countries of the Euro Area, the average growth rate was 0.1 per cent. The trend (compared to the first quarter of 2022) of 1.3 percent.

Returning to the Italian figure, Istat explains that “compared to the previous quarter, all the main aggregates of domestic demand are on the increase, with a 0.7 per cent growth in national final consumption and 0.8 per cent in fixed investments gross”. While “imports and exports decreased by 1 percent and 1.4 percent respectively”. In general, this increase in forecasts also influenced the overall growth estimates for 2023: at the end of the year, Italy’s gross domestic product should increase by 0.9 per cent.