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Bloomberg
Italian industrial output increased more than estimated in November, signaling a possible acceleration in economic activity. Production rose 0.7 percent from October when it increased a revised 0.1 percent on a monthly basis, statistics agency Istat said in Rome. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 20 analysts called for a 0.2 percent gain. On an annual, work-day adjusted basis industrial output was up 3.2 percent in November.
Both executives and households grew more optimistic last month amid expectations of a better growth outlook. The manufacturing confidence index rose in December to the highest in a year. Separately, Istat’s leading indicator signaled an extension of Italy’s recovery with “a positive prospect of the economic-growth pace in the next months,†the statistics agency said in a Dec. 30 report. Still, the latest indications from the labor market and inflation do not bode well for Italy’s outlook. Joblessness rose in November to 11.9 percent, the highest in almost a year and a half. Consumer prices posted last year a 0.1 percent fall on an annual basis, the first yearly decline since 1959 when the consumer-price index decreased 0.4 percent.