ROME - The National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) has announced that Italy is on course to leave behind its technical recession and see a GDP growth of 0.2 per cent at the end of the first trimester as well as a reduction in unemployment.

 Italy entered into a recession at the end of 2018 and was further economic decline was forecast in March. However, preliminary estimations made by ISTAT reveal that the nation is on course to recover and its GDP is set to rise, albeit to a lesser extent than the Eurozone GDP average of 0.4 percent and the growth of EU counterparts Spain (0.7 per cent) and France (0.3 per cent).

 The news came shortly after ISTAT also announced that Italy's unemployment rate had decreased and, as of the end of March, unemployment stands at 10.2 per cent, a drop of 0.5 per cent from February and a drop of 0.8 per cent from March 2018.

 This decrease means that circa 96,000 people who were looking for a job in February have now found some form of employment.

 Unemployment amongst young people is also on the decline, reaching 30.2 per cent, the lowest it has been since October 2011. This is a reduction of 1.6 per cent from February and 2.5 per cent from the same period last year.

 A further positive is that 443,000 more women are now in employment in comparison to April 2008, according to ISTAT.

 However, the reductions are still far short of what Italians demand, and the nation still remains one of the worst countries in Europe for unemployment. Only Greece (18 per cent) and Spain (13.9 per cent) have lower unemployment rates.  President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker last month stated that "economic growth in Italy has been behind European growth for the last 20 years."

 The likes of France, the United Kingdom and Germany, conversely, have much lower unemployment rates at 8.8 per cent, 3.8 per cent, and 3.1 per cent respectively.

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