Southern Italy's GDP rose in 2015 after seven consecutive years of negative growth, local industrial development association SVIMEZ said on Thursday. Southern regions registered GDP growth of 1% last year, compared to a fall of 1.2% in 2014.

This was 0.3% more than in the rest of the country, SVIMEZ added. GDP in southern Italy fell by 12.3% between 2007 and 2014, almost twice the drop of 7.1% registered in the centre and north over the same period. Growth is set to continue this year, albeit at the slower rate of 0.5%, before rising to 0.9% in 2017, the association said.

Source: http://www.ansa.it/