Italians, Their Confidence at a Record Low, Sharply Cut Their Spending

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/business/economy/in-italy-consumer-confidence-reaches-record-low.html?ref=todayspaper

The government reported this week that retail sales fell 3.5 percent compared with a year earlier — the largest such year-over-year decline reported since the government began collecting the data in 1996.

With the government vowing to reduce its spending, and consumers evidently planning to do the same, it is not easy to see what could cause the Italian economy, which has declined in each of the last three quarters, to begin to grow anytime soon.