Shrinking again

摘要

It's the economy, stupid. Had Matteo Renzi, a keen student of American politics, paid more attention to the slogan invented for Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaign in 1992, he might be in a better position today. On August 6th his government's statisticians disclosed that Italy was back in recession. Preliminary estimates suggested that gdp fell by 0.2% in the second quarter of 2014 after a drop of 0.1% in the first quarter. This was the worst blow to the prime minister since coming into office in February. No one expected such a dismal performance. Forecasts ranged from 0.1% to-0.1%. If the estimate is confirmed, it will mean second-quarter growth is weaker than at any time since 2000.