Has Italy Really “Gone Back Into Recession”?
Italians and the world have now been told that their economy slipped back into recession in the first half of 2014. This characterization is based on the criterion for recession that is standard in Europe and most countries: two successive quarters of negative growth. But if the criteria for determining recessions in European countries were similar to those used in the United States, this new downturn would be a continuation of the 2012 recession in Italy, not a new one. A common-sense look at the graph below suggests the same conclusion: the 2013 “recovery” is barely visible.