Addressing a parliamentary commission on Wednesday, Italian Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said that the country’s GDP will contract by not much more than 8% this year while expecting a strong rebound in the third quarter.
Key quotes
“The -8% figure was given when we didn’t know how long the lockdown would last.”
“GDP will be worse than -8%, but not that much.”
“First resources from recovery fund could arrive in the early months of 2021.”
Market reaction
Despite the better-than-expected Eurozone July Producer Price Index (PPI) data, EUR/USD trades with sizeable losses this Wednesday, hit by the broad-based US dollar rebound.
The above remarks failed to have any impact on the shared currency, as it now trades at 1.1860, down 0.38% on the day.
It’s worth noting that the market gauge of long-term Eurozone inflation expectations fell to lowest in over 2 weeks at 1.22% amid the bloc’s negative price pressures.