ROME, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) plunged by 12.4 percent in the second quarter(Q2) compared with Q1 this year, the National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) reported on Friday.
"After the significant decrease recorded in the first quarter (down 5.4 percent), in the second quarter of 2020 the Italian economy suffered an unprecedented contraction...due to the full deployment of the (COVID-19) health emergency," ISTAT analysts wrote.
The country's GDP plummeted by 17.3 percent in Q2 compared to the same quarter of 2019, ISTAT added.
These results are the lowest on record since Q1 1995, the statistics institute said.
The Q2 fall in Italy's GDP occurred amid an international context "in which the leading economies recorded reductions on a comparable scale, caused by the spread of the pandemic," the analysts explained. Enditem
