Italy's poorer south will see economic growth this year for the first time since 2008, according to a study published Tuesday by a Rome-based think-tank.
Southern Italy's recession-hit economy should grow by 0.1 percent in 2015, compared to growth of 0.9 percent for the richer centre-north and 0.8 percent nationally, said a report by the Association for Industrial Development in Southern Italy (SVIMEZ).
Italy's return to growth after its worst post-war recession is consumer led and should strengthen next year with a 0.7 percent economic expansion in the south and 1.3 percent increase for Italy overall, SVIMEZ said.
But the report warned of a growing economic divide between Italy's more prosperous north its underdeveloped and south, where the number of people living in absolute poverty doubled between 2008 and 2014 to reach four million in 2013-2104.
Almost 42 percent of people living in Sicily are at risk of poverty, an even higher proportion than 37 percent of those living in the Campania region and 30 percent of Calabria residents, according to SVIMEZ.
Young women face particular hardship in southern Italy, where only one in five of females aged 15-34 have a job, the report noted.
Unemployment rates among young women in the south are 20 percent higher than in Italy's centre-north, the report warned.