PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The Italian economy is doing better than gross domestic product data suggests and the figures should be taken with a pinch of salt, Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday.
Statistics bureau ISTAT reported in December that GDP fell 0.5 percent in the third quarter, the second consecutive decline after a 0.4 percent fall between April and June.
"It is important not to underestimate the Italian economy. You must be wary of GDP," Tremonti said in an interview with France's Les Echos newspaper.
"Not only does it not include the black economy, but, most importantly, a large part of the activity of our companies takes place outside our borders."
"The result is the Italian economy is stronger than GDP would allow you to think."
Most independent forecasters expect Italy's economy to have contracted by around 0.5 percent in 2008 and to shrink around 1 percent this year, which would be the first consecutive years of falling GDP since World War Two. (Writing by Anna Willard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)