GDP grows more than expected, + 2.6% in three months – the economy

The first quarter of 2021 ended with the growth of the Italian economy. Istat flipped its April 30 estimate, which indicated a cyclical decline of 0.4%, accounting for January-March increase in GDP (corrected by calendar and seasonally adjusted impacts) of 0.1% compared to the previous three months. The difference was obtained Of the Italian GDP for 2021, which could be obtained if there is zero growth in the following quarters of the first, Equal to + 2.6%. Estimates for the first quarter of 2020 have also been revised down to -0.8% compared to -1.4% announced in April.

In April 2021, the unemployment rate increased to 10.7% (+0.3 points)While among young people it decreases to 33.7% (-0.2 points). Istat indicates this in the temporary data on employed and unemployed.

In April 2021 compared to April of last year, Jobseekers in “strong growth” equal to + 870 thousand units (+ 48.3%)Because of the “exceptionally low unemployment rate that marked the beginning of the health emergency.” On the other hand, the number of inactive people between the ages of 15 and 64 decreased (-6.3%, equivalent to -932 thousand), which instead recorded a strong increase in April 2020. In April 2021, compared to March, it was There is a slight rise in employment (+ 0.1%, equal to + 20k units) and compared to April 2020, a decrease (-0.8%) equals -177k units.

In April, the slight increase in employment on a monthly basis, according to statistics, is only due to temporary employees equal to + 96 thousand (+ 3.5%), as the permanent employees and the self-employed decreased by 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively (-47 thousand and -30 thousand). In the annual comparison, the decrease in employment includes the self-employed, who decreased by 3.6% (-184 thousand) and the permanent employees, who decreased by 1.5% (-222 thousand); On the other hand, the number of employees on fixed-term contracts grew by 8.9% (+ 229K). Compared to March, the increase in the number of job seekers in April (+ 3.4%, equal to + 88,000 units) relates to both components of gender and all age groups. Moreover, again in the monthly comparison, the number of inactive people between the ages of 15 and 64 also decreased (-1.0%, which equates to -138 thousand units).

“In April, the growth in employment already registered in the past two months continued, leading to an increase of more than 120,000 employees compared to January 2021. The increase includes both genders and is concentrated among temporary employees. Compared to February 2020, the month before the outbreak began, the number of employees decreased by more than 800,000 The April employment rate rose to 56.9% (+0.1 points).