This week, the ratings company Standard & Poor's revised the annual growth rate for the Italian economy down from 4.7 percent to 3.1 percent, in the light of the conflict and "the resulting surge in commodity prices."
Another report from the Economist Intelligence Unit revised European Union growth rates downward from 4.0 percent to 3.3 percent due to the conflict.
Italy showed the biggest decrease, down from 4.4 percent to 3.4 percent, compared to an estimated 0.7 percent reduction in France and an 0.8 percent reduction in Germany.
The rise in energy prices has reportedly had a greater impact on Italy than other European countries, since Italy is so dependent on imported fuel -- especially from Russia.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi told the Parliament earlier this month that Italy imports 95 percent of the natural gas it uses, with 40 percent of that total coming from Russia.
On Wednesday, Draghi and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a new Russian policy that states that countries which are hostile to Russia's actions, including Italy, will be required to pay for Russian gas in rubles.
However, chief executive of Italian energy giant Eni, Claudio Descalzi, reportedly said in Dubai this week that "Eni will not pay for Russian gas in rubles."
"The contracts say fuel payments should be made in euros," Descalzi said.
Meanwhile, the Italian government's statistics body ISTAT reported a week ago that consumer confidence took a big hit in March, falling to 100.8 from 112.4. Concerns were based mostly on inflation, and jitters over how the Russia-Ukraine conflict could impact Italy's economy.
Bloomberg also reported that the Italian government may need to borrow more money, when Italy already has one of the highest debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) levels in the world.
Italy's total debt jumped to 155.8 percent of GDP in 2020, compared to 134.6 percent the previous year, ISTAT statistics show.
Nevertheless, the broad impact of recent uncertainty appears to be limited, at least in the short term.
Combined with last year's 6.5-percent growth rate, Italy is still expected to completely recover from the 8.9-percent economic contraction experienced in 2020 due to coronavirus lockdowns.
The Italian economy had created 504,000 new jobs in the last year, including 81,000 in February, ISTAT reported on Thursday.
This pushed the country's unemployment rate down to 8.5 percent, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous month, and 1.7 points lower than a year earlier.
Italy's industrial sales data is also improving, ISTAT said on Wednesday.
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