Black Market Cigarettes and Alcohol and Matteo Renzi

Matteo Renzi: Earnings from prostitution, narcotics and black market cigarettes and alcohol all helped stop the eurozones third- biggest economy shrinking. This meant Italy escaped, by the skin of its teeth, having its third recession in the last six years, according to The Independent. The revision brings a breathing space for embattled Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who is struggling to boost the economy and implement reforms while keeping the deficit below the EUs 3 per cent ceiling and Accounting changes across the EU have seen key illegal economic activities such as prostitution and drug trafficking included in a countrys official GDP measure. As a result, Italys economy was said to have risen slightly from a 0.1 per cent decline for the first quarter of 2014 to a flat reading, the National Institute for Statistics, Istat, said. The accounting system, known as SEC 2010, is supposed to help comparison of data between countries, given that some have decriminalised prostitution and drug use. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.