After stalling in the second quarter, economic activity appears to have returned to slight growth in the third, according to the latest data on industrial production and recent business surveys. The recovery is having a positive effect on financial stability: the increase in the employment rate is supporting household disposable income; corporate financial vulnerability indices are improving.
Investment is still the main weak point, particularly in Italy. Although it has been on the rise since mid-2015, partly thanks to increasingly accommodating lending conditions, it remains modest compared with that of other European countries and with the levels recorded in the aftermath of previous recessions; in real terms investment remains nearly 30 per cent lower than in 2007.