Italia Actividad económica April 2023

Italia: Industrial activity drops at sharpest pace since September 2022 in April

Industrial production dropped 2.0% month-on-month in seasonally-adjusted terms in April (March: -0.6% mom). The result marked the worst reading since September 2022. The weakening was largely driven by a bigger drop in manufacturing production. In contrast, mining and quarrying output rebounded.

On an annual basis, factory output dropped 7.2% in April, which was significantly below March’s 3.2% fall and marking the worst result since July 2020. Accordingly, the trend pointed down, with the annual average variation of industrial production coming in at minus 1.3%, down from March’s minus 0.4%.

Commenting on the outlook, Paolo Pizzoli, senior economist at ING, stated:

“After April’s release, the statistical carryover for industrial production in the second quarter is a poor -2.4% quarter-on-quarter: industry thus looks set to act as a drag on growth in the second quarter of 2023. The onus of growth will likely rest on services.”