Italy fell into a technical recession with its gross domestic product (GDP) declining for two consecutive quarters in the third and fourth quarter of 2011, figures from the national statistics agency Istat showed on Wednesday.

In the fourth quarter of last year, the Italian economy registered a negative growth of 0.7 percent compared with the prior three months, after contracting by 0.2 percent in the third quarter, according to data issued by Istat.

Istat also estimated Italy's growth for the whole of 2011 was at 0.4 percent, 1 percentage point lower than the figure of 2010, the lowest growth level for the world's top economies.

"As it had been predicted, we have entered a deep recession," Industry Minister Corrado Passera was quoted by ANSA news agency as saying.

"It rarely happens to have such a long period of great economic difficulty," he said, adding that Italy needs to introduce fundamental structural reforms to boost growth.