Italy Q1 GDP revised down to 0.1% QOQ

Bad news for Italy, Q1 figures have been revised downwards from + 0.2% to + 0.1% QoQ and from + 0.1% to -0.1% Yo Y and do not signal the recovery announced by the government. The pace of investment remains low and has been stable compared to Q4 at + 0.6% QoQ while public consumption has recovered by + 0.2% (vs. -0.2% previously). On the other hand, private consumption decelerated to + 0.1% and imports fell to -1.5% , reflecting the difficulties of the Italian economy to recover after the consecutive contractions in Q3 and Q4 2018. Stocks collapsed in Q1 and are responsible for the negative contribution of domestic de mand which stood at -0.4%. The + 0.5% contribution from foreign trade allowed GDP growth to post positive growth, but masks in reality falling imports as exports also grew at a very low pace of + 0.2%. The weakness of these figures will make things all the more difficult for Matteo Salvini and Luigi di Maio who will struggle to convince Brussels to accept their budget program.