Italy/Indus Production -4: Analysis Is 'Bad News'
Production fell across most sectors, Istat said, especially in investments
and consumers goods, which dropped 2.4% and 1.7% respectively on the year.
"The breakdown only provides bad news. It shows that, regardless of the
strike effect, internal demand is not picking up," said Andrea Brasili,
economist at UBM in Milan.
He added the figures point to the fact that growth in the second quarter will
largely come from inventory rebuilding, just as it did in the first.
Industrial output suffered its sharpest drops at oil refineries, down 8.1%
year-on-year, and in transport, down 6.5%.
Most of the transport slippage came from cars, economists said. New car sales
in Italy have dropped sharply this year and were down 13.4% in April.
The decline in the market has badly hit Italy's largest industrial group,
Fiat SpA (FIA), pushing the automaker into a loss for the first quarter and
sending its shares tumbling to near ten-year lows.
Overall, economists said the data confirmed that Italy was struggling to
recover from a slump which started at the end of last year.
"The picture for Italian industrial production is a rather bleak one. Even
assuming strong growth in both May and June, output will at best be flat in the
second quarter. The momentum is just not there," said Diana at JP Morgan.
-By Luca Di Leo, Dow Jones Newswires; +39 06 6782543; luca.dileo@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 14-06-02
0912GMT |
