Matteo Renzi gets a boost ahead of Sunday's referendum with better-than-expected GDP figures.
Solid domestic demand saw Italian growth rebound in Q3, and the figures for previous quarters were also revised upwards.
GDP rose by 0.3% in Q3 quarter-on-quarter, but a full one percent year-on-year. revised up a tenth of a point.
It is a welcome boost for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has staked his political future on a Sunday referendum on constitutional reform.
“The picture is not so clear cut. It is not like with a ‘yes’ vote the Euro lives, with a ‘no’ vote, the euro dies. It’s a more complicated picture, what I certainly see is major problems for the euro in the future if Italy doesn’t make the reforms that make its public debts sustainable,” says Rome’s Luiss University’s Giovanni Orsina.
The referendum reforms reduce the powers of the senate and regional assemblies. Renzi argues this will allow Rome to drive home unpopular policies that could relaunch the Italian economy.
Inventory building and investments also contributed to the faster growth, but poor trade figures made a negative contribution.