• Employment, Istat: 101 thousand fewer workers in the first quarter
  • OECD: Italy GDP 2020 -11.3% but with new Covid wave at -14

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12 June 2020 Industrial production peaked in the euro area in April, down 17.1% compared to March in the worst month of coronavirus anti-pandemic lockdowns. According to Eurostat data, in the comparison on an annual basis, production has fallen by 28%, obviously in both cases it is the worst collapse ever recorded. The EU statistics body reports falls almost everywhere, with Italy having suffered a minus 19.1% from the previous month and the most serious fall among the large manufacturing countries on an annual basis: a minus -42.5%.

According to Eurostat "the Covid-19-related containment measures, widely implemented by the Member States, have continued to have a significant impact on industrial production". The April data on industrial production, adds the European Statistics office, marks the largest monthly decreases recorded since the beginning of the series, "well above the decreases from 3% to 4% observed at the end of 2008 and at the beginning in 2009 during the financial crisis. " The annual figure is also at record levels: this is the largest annual decrease since the beginning of the series, exceeding the -21.3% in the euro area and the -20.7% in the EU observed in April 2009.

Overall, industrial production in the euro area and in the EU fell to the levels last observed in the mid-1990s. As for the individual sectors in April 2020, compared to March in the euro area, production decreased by 28.9% for durable consumer goods, by 26.6% for capital goods, by 15.6 % for intermediate goods, 11.9% for non-durable consumer goods and 4.8% for energy. In the EU, production decreased by 27.8% for durable consumer goods, by 27.3% for capital goods, by 14.9% for intermediate goods, by 10.7% for non-durable consumer goods and 5.0% for energy. Industrial production has declined in all Member States for which data are available. The largest decreases were recorded in Hungary (-30.5%), Romania (-27.7%) and Slovakia (-26.7%). 

Euro area #IndustrialProduction -17.1% in April over March, -28.0% over April 2019 https://t.co/gDdhw2M6TN pic.twitter.com/RTX4wV0RE1

- EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) June 12, 2020