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Italy is sliding into a deep structural crisis and risks being forced out of Europe's monetary union as the region's economic downturn gathers pace, according to a new report by Capital Economics.
Over the last decade, the country has failed to reform its labour product markets sufficiently to cope with the rigours of euro membership and is now caught in a spiral of decline as the working population starts to shrink. Productivity growth has slowed to 0.5pc a year.
Spanish unemployment is rising by almost 70,000 a month
France's Insee consumer confidence plunged to a 21-year low in July.
Italy - now on the cusp of its fourth recession this decade
Irish economic growth is at 3%, down from 5% in 2007, and expecting 0.5% growth for 2009
UK economic growth at 2% this year and expected at less than 1.75% in 2009