ROME, Oct 29: Italian central bank governor Antonio Fazio forecast that economic growth in Italy would pass 1.0 per cent in 2006, as Italy “overcomes” a difficult turn in its economy, according to a statement released on Saturday.

The head of the Bank of Italy made the prediction on next year’s economic outlook in a communiqué marking world savings day.

As for third quarter of this year, Fazio said “gross domestic product should climb to nearly 0.5 per cent” and that GDP growth for the all of 2005 “should be somewhat positive in comparison with the year before.”

“The involvement of businesses, politicians and institutions will contribute to overcoming this difficult period in our economy,” Fazio said.

The Italian economy grew by 0.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2005 from the first quarter, according to the Italian statistics institute Istat.

On a 12-month basis, the economy expanded 0.1 per cent in the second quarter compared with the same period of 2004.

Italy had been in recession after two consecutive quarters of contraction, in the fourth quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of this year.—AFP