ROME - Italy has already entered into recession, the country's leading business association said on Tuesday.

Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) will drop by 0.6 percent in 2012, while consumption is expected to fall next year by 0.3 percent, according to a statement published by Confcommercio, Italy's largest confederation of enterprises consisting of over 700,000 companies.

"Italy's GDP and consumption are expected to see a drop starting soon from the third and fourth quarters of 2011," the confederation noted on its website.

Although these figures were still raw, they highlighted Italy would be in recession, the statement said.

Should tax hikes, unemployment, low confidence and shrinking purchasing power further hit the domestic demand, "negative signs would significantly amplify," the statement added.

In 2013, the country's GDP and consumption would grow by 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent respectively, the confederation predicted.