News Analysis: Economic forecasting in Italy challenging amid pandemic

ROME, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Amid political turmoil and uncertainty connected to the coronavirus pandemic, economists say predicting Italy's economic performance in the near- or medium-term amounts to a guessing game.

Earlier this month, Italy's Finance Ministry predicted the country's economy will grow by 6.0 percent compared to last year. That is more optimistic than other forecasts -- the research branch of Banca Intesa Sanpaolo in early January predicted 4.7-percent economic growth for the year, which is higher than the 3.0-percent estimate this week from the International Monetary Fund.