The Italian economy is slowly making its way out of an economic crisis that has ravaged the country, but there are fears among the business community that the March 4 election could hobble what is a small and fragile recovery, The Local reported. Figures from the national statistics body Istat say the eurozone’s third-largest economy recorded growth of 1.4% last year, the fastest rate in seven years. However, overall economic output is still nearly 6% lower than before the financial crisis hit in 2008 and Italy is way behind the 2.5% growth recorded by the eurozone last year, according to Eurostat. Economists say this weakness is primarily due to Italian productivity being among the lowest in Europe, which in itself is due to factors like lack of credit, a mismatch between training and what companies need and a business environment that doesn’t give entrepreneurs a helping hand. “Since 1999, the productivity gap between Italy and the other major eurozone countries has widened significantly,” says Nicola Nobile from Oxford Economics. Gross domestic product (a measure of total output in the economy) “per hour of work is 25% lower than that of Germany and France”.
