ROME, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Wednesday hailed positive new data suggesting that the country's economy is expanding after six years' stagnation.
"Italy is no longer the taillight of Europe," Gentiloni said in a speech at the inauguration of the new academic year at Cattolica University in Rome.
"Some European countries will post lower growth than Italy in 2017, and among them is a great country ... which has chosen to leave the European Union," Gentiloni said in the speech posted on the premier's office Twitter account.
The center-left prime minister spoke in reference to preliminary estimates from ISTAT official statistics agency out Tuesday, showing that third-quarter GDP rose 0.5 percent with respect to the second quarter of 2017 and by 1.8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2016.
This was the strongest continuous growth since 2011, according to ISTAT. The numbers also placed Italy ahead of the UK, whose economy expanded by 0.4 percent in the third quarter of 2017 compared to the preceding three months, and by 1.5 percent in comparison to the same period last year, ISTAT analysts pointed out.
"We have greatly improved the deficit situation" and "growth is speeding up, to double last year's forecasts of 0.8 percent," Gentiloni said.
"In just a few years, we went from negative levels of -2 percent to the levels ISTAT gave us yesterday of +1.8 percent in 2017," he said. While the numbers are positive, their impact has yet to reach everyone, he added.
"The country is growing again, but this growth has not solved our social and economic problems -- it has not healed the scars of the crisis," Gentiloni said.
"We must not go back to squandering the resources we have," Gentiloni said. "Economic recoveries can take place without (creating new) jobs", and it is the task of government to "intervene against exclusion and poverty", he said.
Leaders must work to avert the consequences of a growing rift between educated, technologically advanced elites and people who are left out of global growth, the Italian prime minister said.
