Italy’s economy contracted for a third quarter in the three months through March as the nation’s recession deepened amid an intensifying euro-area debt crisis. Gross domestic product declined 0.8 percent, the most in three years, Rome-based national statistics institute Istat said in a preliminary report today. The contraction was more than the median forecast of 0.7 percent in a survey of 14 economists by Bloomberg News. GDP fell 1.3 percent from a year earlier. Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government is implementing 20 billion euros ($26 billion) in austerity measures that helped push Italy into its fourth ... (full story)