Unemployment ‘painful’ but won’t harm growth says econ min
(ANSA) – London, November 5 – Italian Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni on Tuesday called the country’s jobless rate ”painful”, but said that it would not negatively affect its outlook for growth.
”The fact that there is unemployment does not means that there isn’t a recovery” underway, he said.
Overall unemployment in recession-hit Italy climbed to a record high of 12.5% in September, up from 12.4% in August. Youth unemployment in the country was also at its highest ever in September at 40.4%, reported the Italian national statistics agency last week.
Istat said Monday that it expected Italy to pull out of its longest recession in over two decades by the end of the year and post positive growth of 0.7% in 2014.
The agency forecast that Italy’s gross domestic product for 2013 will be 1.8% down on last year, confirming data it presented to parliament last week. The government’s latest GDP forecasts were instead for negative growth of 1.7% this year and positive growth of 1% in 2014.