Investing.com - Official data on Wednesday showed that Italy's economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter in the three months to June, meeting the technical term for a recession.
In a report, ISTAT, Italy's statistical office said the country's gross domestic product contracted by a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in the second quarter, confounding expectations for growth of 0.2%.
Italy’s economy shrank 0.1% in the preceding quarter.
Annualized GDP declined at a rate of 0.3%, worse than expectations for an increase of 0.1%, after falling 0.4% in the first quarter.
Following the release of the data, the euro held on to losses against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD shedding 0.1% to trade at 1.3363.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were broadly lower. Italy's FTSE MIB plunged 2.2%, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 lost 1.45%, France's CAC 40 tumbled 1.2%, Germany's DAX sank 1.5%, while the FTSE 100 fell 1.1%.