Renzi Bullish on Growth

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he was optimistic Italy’s economy would grow by 1% this year, just a few weeks after he cut the official forecast to 0.8%, Hellenicshipping news reported. Renzi, who is campaigning furiously ahead of a Dec. 4 referendum on a constitutional reform that he has staked his political future on, said on a television talk-show he was “optimistic that we’ll end the year at 1%”. At the end of September, the government lowered its 2016 growth target from 1.2% to 0.8%, bringing it into line with most independent forecasters after gross domestic product stagnated in the second quarter. Earlier on Tuesday, Italy’s independent budget watchdog, the Parliamentary Budget Office said it expected 2016 growth of just 0.7%. It forecast a GDP rise of 0.2% in the third quarter and 0.1% in the fourth. The UPB created a stir this month when it refused to sign off on Renzi’s multi-year budget plan, saying the economic outlook it depicted was too rosy.