ROME (Reuters) -Italy’s economy grew 0.3% in the first quarter from the previous three months due mainly to firm investments, national statistics bureau ISTAT said on Friday, confirming a previous printout.
On a year-on-year basis, first quarter gross domestic product in the euro zone’s third largest economy was up 0.7%, ISTAT said, revising up an estimate of 0.6% made on April 30.
The breakdown of GDP components showed a rise in investments that drove domestic demand, while trade flows also made a marginal positive contribution to the quarter-on-quarter growth.
Industry and agriculture expanded, while services declined slightly, ISTAT said.
The statistics institute revised up to 0.5% from 0.4% so-called “acquired growth,” at the end of the first quarter.
This indicates what the full-year 2025 growth rate would be if there were to be no quarterly growth over the rest of the year.
The Italian government halved its economic growth estimate for this year to 0.6% last month amid mounting uncertainty due to U.S. trade tariff policy.
The European Commission cut its forecast for Italian 2025 growth to 0.7% from 1% last week. The Bank of Italy has forecast a growth rate of just 0.5%, while the International Monetary Fund sees 0.4%.
Italy posted growth of 0.7% in each of the last two years.
The fourth quarter of last year was confirmed to have posted a 0.2% GDP rise quarter-on-quarter, while the year-on-year rate was revised up to 0.6% from a previously reported 0.5%.
(Reporting by Antonella Cinelli, graphic by Stefano Bernabei, editing by Gavin Jones)
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