The presentation of the Cuneo Report 2024, curated by the Studies and Statistics office of the chamber of commerce, was also included this year among the events leading up to the International Festival of Economics, directed by Tito Boeri, planned and organized by the Laterza publishers in collaboration with the Fondazione Collegio Carlo Alberto of Turin, which will take place in the Piedmontese capital from 30 May to 2 June and will focus on the theme of technological progress and knowledge. The picture of the 2023 economic situation was enriched, as last year, by the information from the Infocamere dashboard, which constitutes an integrative element of the 2024 Economic Report. The event, which took place in the main hall of the Chamber of Commerce, was was also able to follow in streaming mode and was moderated by Massimo Mathis, head of La Stampa Cuneo. After the institutional greetings, the program continued with the speech of Pietro Garibaldi, coordinator of the TOLC (Turin Local Committee) of the Turin-Piedmont International Festival of Economics.
“We are really pleased to once again have the opportunity to bring a preview of the International Festival of Economics to the area – highlighted Pietro Garibaldi of TOLC Turin – and in particular to do it in Cuneo: a province that has its roots in tradition, but capable of opening up to innovation and attentive to the challenges of the global world, such as that of sustainability”.
In 2023, Granda generated over 22.4 billion euros of gross domestic product (+7.7% compared to the previous year), producing 14.3% of total regional wealth and 1.1% of national wealth. In terms of added value per capita, Cuneo recorded an average figure higher than the regional one with 34,264 euros, positioning itself, for the second consecutive year, in first place among the Piedmontese provinces. In this context, in 2023 the labor market confirmed its solidity with an increase in employment levels and a contraction in the number of unemployed (-2.4%). The provincial employment rate stood at 70.0%, with -0.3 compared to 2022, but +0.6 compared to 2021 and +0.7 compared to 2019 (last pre-pandemic year), a much higher figure to the 67.1% recorded by Piedmont and almost 10 points more than the 61.5% which constitutes the national average. Cuneo confirms that it has a healthy job market, capable of effectively dealing with the difficulties of recent years.
Analyzing the unemployment rate (3.7%) it is clear that the province of Cuneo shows a better situation than the regional average (6.3%) and the national average (7.8%). In analogy with the national level, there is also a clear gender gap in the Cuneo area: male gender stands at 3.3% and female gender at 4.2%. The average number of employed people in the province of Cuneo in 2023 stood at 261 thousand, a decrease of 0.6% compared to the 2022 average. 56.5% are represented by men, compared to 43.5% of women. 72.3% are employees, compared to 27.7% of self-employed workers.
“In 2023, the world economy continued to expand at a moderate pace: GDP grew by 3.2%. In Italy the development was 0.9%, higher than that of the euro area (+0.4%). The socio-economic framework of Cuneo fits into this context, characterized by mostly positive signals: the local production system has, in fact, demonstrated good stability, especially on foreign markets, exporting goods for 10.7 billion euros, 4.3% more than in 2022” declared Elena Porta, from the Studies and Statistics office of Unioncamere Piemonte.
According to the Business Register of the Chamber of Commerce, the Cuneo entrepreneurial fabric, as of 31 December 2023, has 65,123 business offices with a growth rate of -0.10%, lower than the regional figure (+0.14%) and national (+0.70%). Cuneo confirms itself in second place in Piedmont, after Turin, in terms of consistency, with a share of 15.4% of the total number of regional company headquarters.
Among the legal forms, joint-stock companies are increasing (+3.34%); for the third consecutive year the artisan sector is strengthening, which represents over a quarter of the province’s businesses, recording an increase of +0.76%. The female component is decreasing (-0.92%), while businesses led by young people under 35 are growing by 11.4%. The number of foreign companies is also increasing (+10.2%) with a growth rate more than double that of the regional one (+4.6%).
Exports recorded a growth of 4.3% which brought the value to almost 11 billion euros, with a smaller percentage increase than what was recorded at a regional level (+7.3%) but better than the stability of the national data. In the EU-27 area, the most important markets are confirmed to be the French and German ones, with growth of 2.1% and 4.1%, while for the non-EU-27 basin the reference markets continue to be the States United States, although down by 0.8%, and the United Kingdom up by 6.4%.
Tourism continued its virtuous path. In 2023, presences (2,003,367) increased by 7.8% and arrivals (858,958) by +7.7%. As regards arrivals, 93.9% of tourists were of European origin, while Italian travelers represented 65.2% of the total, an increase compared to 61.8% the previous year. The Langhe Monferrato and Roero ATL recorded an annual growth of 7.9%, while the Cuneo ATL had an increase of more than 9%.
The data at the end of 2023 referring to the economic survey, carried out by Unioncamere Piemonte in collaboration with the research offices of the Chambers of Commerce, paint a positive picture. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Cuneo’s industrial production recorded strong growth with +3.1% compared to the previous year, associated with the increase in internal turnover (+2.3%) and internal orders (+3.2%) while foreign turnover (-0.6%) and foreign orders (-1.9%) slowed down. The level of use of the systems stood at 64.89%.
The Deputy Vice President of the Cuneo Chamber of Commerce stated that the data are comforting and give us a snapshot of a healthy province that has once again been able to react to internal and exogenous difficulties, thanks to a sort of “analytical squint” that it has given us the ability to look near and far at the same time, sinking our roots in tradition but opening up to the global, dedicating attention to internal areas and micro and small businesses but, at the same time, demonstrating a great propensity to export and conquer international markets.
In a scenario that highlights a moderate expansion, the meeting was an opportunity to look towards the near future, thanks to the analysis conducted by Livia Simongini, Senior Specialist Sit (territorial industrial strategies) of the research company Prometeia who stated “The The provincial economy has shown good resilience to the shocks that have characterized the international panorama in recent years. The persistence of strong uncertainties contributes to the outline of moderate growth for Cuneo, not dissimilar to that envisaged at a regional level. Industry will contribute above all to the expansion of the provincial economy, supported by a more intense development of exports than that expected for Piedmont and Italy. The contribution of services to the growth of the local system, although significant, will be held back by the relatively minor specialization in the tertiary sectors with higher added value. However, a retreat is expected for the construction sector. The progressive exhaustion of tax breaks for private construction, in fact, will not be compensated by the increase in the public component of investments linked to the implementation of the PNRR and these dynamics will affect both the trend of provincial added value and that of employment”.
During the presentation, the impact of artificial intelligence, one of the key themes of the Turin International Economics Festival, was also addressed.
