(From left) Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio | Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images Italy enters recession as eurozone growth flatlines Rome’s populist government has been at loggerheads with Brussels over the country’s budget.

Italy has become Europe's first major economy to enter a recession in five years after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

The Italian economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the last quarter of 2018, following a 0.1 percent fall in the third quarter, according to figures released by the country's national statistics office on Thursday. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth meets the definition of a technical recession.

The economic data comes after a spat between Rome's populist government and the European Commission over the country's budget, which sought to borrow more than the bloc's guidelines allowed.

Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said the data "certified the failure of the entire political class which Italians sent packing" last year, Reuters quoted him as having said.

Data released Thursday also shows the eurozone economy remained flat in the last three months of 2018. The single currency area’s GDP expanded by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to the previous quarter when the growth rate was also 0.2 percent, according to a flash estimate from Eurostat.

Silvia Sciorilli Borelli contributed reporting.