Question : Which of the following statement is correct regarding Italy’s GDP ?
(a) Italy has a major advanced economy and is a founding member of the European Union, the Eurozone, the OECD, the G7 and the G20.
(b) Italy emerged from World War I in a poor and weakened condition. The National Fascist Party of Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922
(c) Italy has been one of the countries hardest hit in Europe by Covid-19, registering more than 1,00,000 deaths since the contagion came to light in late February.
(d) Only (a) and (b)
Answer : (d)
Related facts
- Italy’s economy shrank 12.4% in the second quarter from the previous three months, preliminary data showed on Friday(31 July 2020), as activity nosedived during the coronavirus pandemic, but the fall was less severe than many analysts had predicted.
- The quarterly slump in gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro zone’s third largest economy was “unprecedented”, national statistics bureau ISTAT said.
ISTAT & Current scinerio
- The Italian National Institute of Statistics is the main producer of official statistics in Italy. Its activities include the census of population, economic censuses and a number of social, economic and environmental surveys and analyses.
- The quarterly slump in gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro zone’s third largest economy was “unprecedented”, national statistics bureau ISTAT said.
- On a year-on-year basis, second quarter GDP tumbled 17.3%, ISTAT said.
- Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 15.0% contraction quarter-on-quarter and an 18.7% drop year-on-year.
- All segments of the economy suffered, ISTAT said, without giving details.
- ISTAT also revised down its readings for the first three months of 2020 to give a quarterly drop of 5.4% and a 5.5% fall against the same period a year ago. These were previously given as 5.3% and 5.4% respectively.
By — Pankaj Pandey.