Recession? Stop talking about it

Rome: Italy's national statistics institute should stop releasing monthly economic data because the generally negative figures risk hurting consumer sentiment, Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said last week.

"If [statistics bureau] ISTAT decided to issue their statistics every three months, and all together, it would be better than publishing releases bit by bit," Scajola said.

He said the constant issuing of data was "a bulletin of alarm", for citizens in the euro zone's third largest economy.

Italy is struggling through its worst post-war recession, with the economy expected to contract by at least five per cent this year after shrinking one per cent in 2008.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi frequently expresses annoyance with economic institutes for issuing negative forecasts and with the media for reporting them, saying they hurt morale and risk deepening the crisis.

However, no minister had so far suggested that the normal frequency of data releases should be slowed.

Scajola's suggestion would isolate Italy, as the vast majority of key economic data in the euro zone, and in advanced countries generally, are issued monthly.