Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 2, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleItaly's Confindustria cuts GDP forecast due to US tariffs and geopolitical tensions, affecting exports. Growth expected at 0.5% for 2023.
MILAN (Reuters) -Italy's main business lobby Confindustria on Thursday cut its economic growth forecasts for this year and next, as U.S. trade tariffs and geopolitical tensions hurt exports.
Moreover, with both factors expected to be long lasting, the outlook for the euro zone's third-largest economy is unlikely to improve any time soon, Confindustria added.
The group said it expected Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) to expand by 0.5% this year, marginally down from a 0.6% estimate it made in April, before the United States reached a deal with the European Union which imposes a 15% tariff on imported European goods.
"The export outlook has been significantly revised downward, due to the U.S. tariff on European goods and the intensification of global geopolitical tensions," Confindustria said.
"Italy's GDP growth in 2025 and 2026 will be mainly driven by investment, and to a lesser extent by household consumption," the lobby said, while export growth will be "close to zero" in both years, also hurt by the strength of the euro.
Later on Thursday Italy's government is set to update its own economic forecasts, which are expected to be close to those of Confindustria.
The government's 2026 budget framework will forecast growth of 0.5% or 0.6% this year and around 0.8% in 2026, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
Italian GDP grew by 0.7% last year and by 1% in 2023.
The most recent forecasts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) envisage Italian growth of 0.5% and 0.6% respectively this year.
(Reporting by Sara Rossi, editing by Gavin Jones)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period, used as an economic indicator.
Economic growth refers to the increase in the production of goods and services in an economy over a period, typically measured by GDP.
Investment in economics refers to the purchase of goods that are not consumed today but are used in the future to create wealth.
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