The ECB report analysed of the four largest economies in the eurozone, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It focused on product specialization, competitiveness and export destinations for each country - factors that drive economic growth.Frankfurt (ANTARA News/AKI) - Chronically low growth is one of the main problems underlying Italy`s ailing economy and "the relative weakness" of its recovery from the global recession, a European Central Bank report said on Thursday.
The bank is the European Union institutiont which administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU member states using the euro currency (the so-called eurozone) and is one of the world`s most important central banks.
The ECB report analysed of the four largest economies in the eurozone, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It focused on product specialization, competitiveness and export destinations for each country - factors that drive economic growth.
Italy`s national output or gross domestic product is is expected to expand by 1 percent in 2011 and 1.3 percent in 2012 according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat.
Italian growth has risen less than 0.3 percent annually over the past decade - the lowest rate in Europe.
Economists warn that the tough austerity measures Italy is being forced to adopt to tame its massive 1.9 trillion euro public debt - 120 percent of GDP and second only to Greece`s in the eurozone - will weaken consumption making growth hard.
The ECB and key EU states France and Germany have pressured Italy to accelerate an austerity package containing 48 billion euros of spending cuts to balance its budget by 2013 instead of 2014 the government had previously planned.
(A045)(H-AK)
Editor: Ella Syafputri
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