Italy set for disappointing 0.7-per-cent growth in 2015

Rome (dpa) - The Italian economy is set to expand 0.7 per cent this year, the national statistics office, Istat, said Friday in a disappointing forecast for the eurozone‘s third-largest economy.The government in Rome had predicted a 0.9-per-cent expansion in September, but this week, both Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said the target was at risk, partly because of the economic fallout of last month‘s Paris terrorist attacks.Istat said in a monthly note that it expected a quarter-on-quarter uptick in gross domestic product of 0.2 per cent in the last three months of 2015, or half the quarterly rate of expansion registered at the beginning of the year."We expect the expansionary phase that began in the first months of the year to continue, albeit at a moderate pace," Istat said, adding that "current international trends are negatively affecting the performance of Italian exports."Italy emerged from a record-length recession in early 2015. Lower growth will make it harder for Renzi to juggle his government‘s stimulus policies with EU demands to curb Italy‘s public debt, one of the largest in the world.