ROME: Italy’s unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in January, adding to signs that the euro region’s third-biggest economy may recover this year from its longest slump on record.
The jobless rate dropped to 12.6 percent from a revised 12.7 percent in December, statistics institute Istat said in a preliminary report in Rome on Monday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for 12.9 percent.
Italy’s consumer confidence rose to the highest in more than 12 years in February amid optimism about a return to growth in coming months. Business confidence also increased as the country’s biggest employers lobby said it will revise up its growth forecast for 2015 from a December projection of a 0.5 percent rise. The economy may expand 0.1 percent in the first quarter as exports more than offset weak domestic demand, Istat said last week.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who took office a year ago with plans to pull the economy out of the recession, has been hindered by joblessness consistently above 12.5 percent and falling consumer prices. Italy failed to rebound from its three-and-half-year long slump in the fourth quarter, when gross domestic product was unchanged from the previous three months, Istat said in a Feb. 13 report.
