Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 30, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 30, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleItaly's economy grew 0.3% in Q4 2025, exceeding expectations. Year-on-year growth was 0.8%, with further data expected on March 2.
ROME, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The Italian economy grew by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of last year from the previous three months and was up 0.8% year-on-year, data showed on Friday, a stronger reading than expected which bolsters the outlook for this year.
A Reuters survey of 28 economists had forecast a 0.2% rise quarter-on-quarter and an increase of just 0.5% year-on-year.
Over the whole of 2025, the euro zone's third largest economy grew by 0.7% from the year earlier, when adjusted for the number of working days, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported.
It will release on March 2 non-workday-adjusted growth data for last year, comparable with the government's 0.5% target.
There were three fewer days worked last year than in 2024, so the March 2 data may show lower growth than the figure released on Friday.
ISTAT said so-called "acquired growth" going into 2026 stood at 0.3%, meaning that even if GDP is flat in each of the four quarters of this year, full-year growth will be up 0.3% from the year earlier.
Italy's government has set a full-year growth target of 0.7% for this year.
The 0.3% quarter-on-quarter growth between October and December was the result of higher domestic demand which more than offset a negative contribution from trade flows, ISTAT said.
It gave no numerical breakdown of components with its preliminary estimate, but said industry, services and agriculture had all expanded.
In the July-to-September period the economy grew by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, ISTAT said, revising up an originally reported 0.1% increase, while the year-on-year data was confirmed at 0.6%.
(Reporting by Antonella Cinelli, graphic by Stefano Bernabei, editing by Gavin Jones)
Year-on-year growth compares economic performance in one period to the same period in the previous year, providing insights into long-term economic trends.
Economic projections are estimates about future economic performance based on current data and trends, often used by policymakers and businesses for planning.
ISTAT, or the Italian National Institute of Statistics, is the official statistical agency of Italy responsible for collecting and analyzing economic and social data.
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