ROME (ITALPRESS) – The Mezzogiorno is growing more than the national average. This is the news emerging from the report “Erit – The Economy of the Italian Regions,” presented by the Bank of Italy. In the period following the pandemic, the Italian economy recorded higher average growth rates than the main economies in the euro area, and an important contribution came from southern Italy: here, output and employment grew more than the national average. This is an important new element, although it may partly reflect temporary dinature factors, given the particular relevance for the southern economy of the extensive public interventions adopted n response to global shocks. Bankitalia stresses the need to give continuity to the current recovery through policies that leverage investment and the quality of institutions and public action, with the aim of raising the productive capacity of the southern economy. The report said that last year, after a robust recovery in 2021-22, activity grew only slightly in all macro areas, reflecting weak global demand and tighter monetary conditions. The increase was more pronounced in the South, reflecting greater expansion of activity in the construction and service sectors and less contraction in industry. Real exports increased in the South and the Islands, in contrast to the reduction recorded in the North Central. Pnrre spending measures incentives to upgrade the housing stock continued to support the construction sector, which was the fastest-growing sector in the entire country. According to the Quarterly Indicator of the Regional Economy (ITER) compiled by the Bank of Italy, GDP growth in the first half of 2024, which was slightly stronger in the southern regions, remained modest in every breakdown; it was still affected by fragile domestic and foreign demand. Last year, employment continued to grow in every breakdown, more intensely in the South; this was influenced by the contribution relief, the recovery of public investment and the end of the staff turnover freeze in the public administration. The increase in labor market participation also continued, particularly in the South and Northeast. The unemployment rate has declined everywhere. Local government accounts improved in 2023. Investment spending has accelerated, buoyed in particular by the use in the Mezzogiornodevelopment of European cohesion funds from the 2014-20 programming cycle, which is nearing completion, and by the gradual implementation of projects related to the NRP. On the banking front, the report shows that lending to the non-financial private sector, which had already slowed since the end of 2022, has contracted in every breakdown since the third quarter of last year. The trend was mainly affected by the significant and generalized decline in loans to the productive sector, particularly in the Center and the Northeast. The decline reflected both lower demand for credit and the greater risk aversion of intermediaries in a weak macroeconomic environment. Household lending continued to expand only in the South, albeit at a slower pace. In the coming years, the expansion of activity will be significantly influenced by demographic developments. Weighing on the country’s economy will be the now unstoppable demographic decline:Between 2023 and 2043 in Italy the resident population would contract by 4.3 percent, reflecting a slight growth in the North (0.9 percent), more than offset by a large decline in the Center and, in particular, in the South (by 3.6 and 11.9 percent, respectively). The decline will be even more pronounced for the working-age population: the number of people between 15 and 64 years of age would fall by more than 16% on average, with differentiated trends among the different macroareas: -11% in the North, -16 in the Center and -24 in the South.
– Photo Agency Photogram –
(ITALPRESS).
