Catanzaro – The Calabrian economy slowed down during 2023 due to the loss of purchasing power of families and the tightening of credit access conditions, but in the future it could benefit from the strong slowdown in inflation, relative in particularly to the fall in prices of energy goods. This is what emerged from the report on the regional economy prepared by the Bank of Italy and illustrated this morning in Catanzaro in the presence of the branch manager, Marcello Mala Misura. Also speaking during the meeting with journalists were the deputy director Riziero Bruno and the researchers Giuseppe Albanese, Antonio Covelli, Enza Maltese, Graziella Mendicino and Iconio Garri’.
“Last year there was growth of 0.6 percent, in line with the average of the South and slightly lower than the national one – declared Mala Misura. Overall, the recovery phase, started after the pandemic, continues, a dynamic aligned to the national scenarios, thanks to comforting signals such as the level of economic activities and employment. Business turnover is growing more modestly, especially the services sector, the construction sector is still doing well, while in manufacturing there is a slight reduction in turnover. production volumes”. Both self-employed and, in particular, dependent employment is increasing with a wider use of permanent contracts. Paradoxically, the Bank of Italy report points out, “despite the increase in people looking for work, the difficulty in finding manpower reported by companies has continued to grow, mainly involving technical or highly specialized figures”.
Speaking of families, Mala Misura added that “the slight increase in employment levels has made the growth of disposable incomes possible, although still lower than the growth in the cost of living caused by the inflationary flare-up which, over the course of the last year, has been decreasing , leaving hope for the future.” The performance of the regional economy remains conditioned by the limited share of new high-growth companies, especially those operating in sectors with greater technology and knowledge intensity. Furthermore, Calabria is characterized by a low presence of multinational companies. Specifically on the topic of work, the director highlighted that “there is a misalignment between the types of workers requested by companies, especially those qualified in scientific disciplines, and the job offer which often does not correspond. It is therefore necessary to build an ecosystem that is more favorable to the growth of private initiative and newly established businesses are the demographic dynamics that need to be reflected on, the population has shrunk in the last twenty years and this is reflected in participation in the labor market , a strong internal migratory balance persists, many young people are leaving the region”.
On the Pnrr chapter and public investments, Mala Misura added: “We are not just talking about works, but about reforms that can help economic activity. In the region we have resources that are close to 5 billion, in the implementation phase we are in line with the framework national, we record the start of construction sites but the state of implementation is still limited. This highlights the important role that small local authorities have in the administrative management of the landfilling of resources and in which difficulties are encountered”. In this regard, the collections of local authorities continued to grow significantly, driven by state transfers; tax revenues, however, remain conditioned both by the reduced fiscal capacity of Calabrian taxpayers and by the slow collection speed by the entities. The budget situation has improved, but is still worse than the rest of the country, especially for the provinces and larger municipalities.
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