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The arrival of September was good news for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The month opened with a positive readjustment to the country's economic growth calculations and some long-awaited positive movement with unemployment levels.
But most Italians feel the economy is struggling as much as ever. In figures released in August, consumer confidence levels continued to edge higher and industrial production held its own compared to the same period in 2014.
That combines with adjustments from the National Statistics Institute, ISTAT, showing the Italian economy actually grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the year and 0.3 percent in the second, compared to previous estimates of 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively. And unemployment levels, which stubbornly remained around 12.5 percent, were 12.0 percent at mid-year, ISTAT reported.
All in all, analysts said, it was the best period of macro-economic data since Renzi became prime minister in February 2014.
"On the one hand, it's very positive news for the Renzi government because it is objective roof that things appear to be turning around," Oliviero Fiorini, an economic analyst with ABS Securities in Milan, told Xinhua.
"On the other hand," he went on, "the recovery remains a very abstract idea to most Italians."
Fiorini pointed to the fact that housing prices continue to erode and new car sales remain below recent norms. He even looked at anecdotal evidence showing that in August, the traditional month for vacations in Italy, when more families stayed closer to home and on average spent about 10 percent less than last year on their vacations. "Most people are still hurting economically," the analyst said.
Maria Rossi, co-director of the polling firm Opinioni, agreed. She said polls continue to show that a low number, generally less than a third, of those polled said they believed their economic situation would be better in either three or six months.
"Consumer confidence levels analyze spending and saving habits, " Rossi said in an interview.
"But if you ask most Italians, they tell you things are still headed in the wrong direction.
It's one thing to see in the newspapers that things are improving. It's another to have more money in your pocket."
Fiorini said that if the economy is really turning around, that trend would eventually change.
"It takes time for most people to feel the difference," Fiorini said. "If there is sustained economic growth, sustained improvement in the unemployment rate, if that happens, rank-and-file Italians will start to feel the difference."
He went on: "The old saying is that Rome wasn't built in a day, and the modern version could be that in the same vein: its economy wasn't rebuilt in one economic cycle." Enditem
