Finally Italy is beginning to come out of the recession: in the last four months, the economy has marked a slow but encouraging +0.1% increase. More positive news arrived from New York: Moody’s agency confirmed a new rating for Italy, changing the outlook from negative to stable.
Nevertheless, people still do not feel a great change. Unemployment, especially among people, is at its highest level in 40 years. Suicides linked to Italy’s longest postwar recession rose to 149 in 2013 from 89 the previous year. The main causes are loss of a job, being desperate for money, and inability to pay tax bills. Deaths occur on both sides of economic relations: almost half of all suicides (45,6%) were committed by entrepreneurs (68 cases in 2013, 49 in 2012), but the number of victims among the unemployed is also growing, in both the North and the South of Italy.
How many will there be this year if, as the analysts say, it will take some time before the economy picks up enough to deliver real benefits to struggling households?
The recession officially ended in the third quarter of 2013 when growth was flat after eight consecutive drops in GDP, and rose by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to preliminary estimates from the national statistics agency LSTAT. But the new year opened with 440,000 workers staying home and receiving unemployment benefits: in the first month of the year, the country lost 311 million euros of general income, which translates to 700 euros per worker.
The leader of Confindustria, Italy’s industrial employers’ association, Giorgio Squinzi, railed against Italian bureaucracy and called for an overhaul of the public administration. Without a reorganization of the public administration (in 2015 taxes increase will be of another billion), firms will still suffer from oppressive rules that stop the economical restarting and the creation of new occupation. Italy is always in the lower-ranking positions in international classifications regarding the administration companies have to deal with.
Italy also needs to cut political expenses, costed 2,5 billion euros in 2012. According to Confindustria it can be saved up to 1 million reducing of 30% the emoluments of the deputies (the most paid in Europe), reducing their number, reforming their pensions and abolishing the contributions to the parliamentary groups.
The leader of Confindustria, Italy’s industrial employers’ association, Giorgio Squinzi, railed against Italian bureaucracy and called for an overhaul of the public administration. Without a reorganization of the public administration (in 2015, tax increases will be another billion), firms will still suffer from oppressive rules that stop the economy from restarting and creating new occupations. Italy is always in the lower-ranking positions in international classifications regarding the administrative bureaucracy companies have to deal with.
Italy also needs to cut political expenses, which were 2,5 billion euros in 2012. According to Confindustria, the country could save up to 1 million by cutting 30% from the emoluments of deputies (the most highly paid in Europe), reducing their number, reforming their pensions and abolishing the contributions to the parliamentary groups.
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