Italian consumer confidence at 26-month high
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Rome (dpa) - Italian consumer confidence has risen to the highest level in 26 months, official statistics showed Wednesday, amid expectations that the euro zone's third-largest economy was about to emerge from a record-length recession.
Consumer confidence rose to 101.1 in September, up from 98.4 in August, national statistics office Istat said. The index rose throughout the country, but it was highest in the industrialized north-west and lowest in the Mezzogiorno, the poorer south.
Earlier this month, business association Confindustria said Italy's economy would stop shrinking in the last quarter of 2013 and start growing again in early 2014. The country's recession started in mid-2011.
Government plans to settle 47 billion euros (63 billion dollars)o f debt owed to private firms during 2013-14 could boost growth further, Confindustria said. On Monday, the economy ministry said that 11.3 billion euros had been paid so far.
