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Italy's industrial production drops 0.8 pct in 2014

Xinhua, February 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italian industrial production dropped 0.8 percent in 2014, registering negative performance for the third consecutive year, national statistics institute Istat said on Tuesday.

However, in the last month of 2014, the output increased by 0.4 percent compared with November, Rome-based Istat added in its report.

Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Tuesday his country's economy, which is struggling to emerge from its longest recession on record, was "accelerating."

"This year we will have positive economic growth across the euro area," Padoan was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency on the sidelines of the G20 summit for finance ministers and central bankers in Istanbul.

Istat recently estimated the Italian economy would begin to recover in the first months of this year.

The country's central bank also has revised up growth forecast, and expects Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) to expand more than 0.5 percent this year and more than 1.5 percent in 2016.

The forecasts were raised after the European Central Bank (ECB) last month launched its quantitative easing (QE) program to pump over one trillion euros (1.13 trillion U.S. dollars) into the euro area. Endit