ROME: New car registrations across Italy have jumped to 131,000 in January, a 10.9 per cent increase compared to last year.
It is offering a glimmer of hope that the eurozone’s third-largest economy will finally post growth in gross domestic product in 2015 after three years of recession.
According to the latest forecast by the European Commission released last week, Italy is expected to generate growth of 0.6 per cent in 2015. This is sluggish by global or even European standards, but could feel like a boom for Italy after the economy shrank by 0.5 per cent last year and by 1.9 per cent in 2013.
The Bank of Italy said over the weekend it expects the economy to grow by 0.5 per cent this year and above 1.5 per cent in 2016. The forecast is a U-turn on a prediction given only last month — before the launch of QE — that the economy would grow by 0.4 per cent this year and 1.2 per cent next year.
