On the day the Autonomy passed the Senate and became law, the data arrived Svimez on the GDPwhich marks a decisive +0.9% compared to last year. But the most interesting data is that of the South, which shows greater growth than the rest of the country and the average, with +1.3%. The one growing less, but still with the “plus” sign in front, is the Center, which reports +0.4%, while the North-East and North-West grow by 0.9% and 1% respectively. Italy, on average, grows more than the European average, stopping at +0.4%. It has been almost 10 years, since 2015, that we have not seen such a strong growth in GDP in the South.
“We chose from the first moment to commit ourselves to aItaly stronger and fairerensuring more autonomy, more cohesion and more subsidiarity, which represent the cornerstones of the bill on differentiated autonomy, i.e. the exact opposite of the logic of the past focused on purely welfare policies, especially in the South“, declared the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, commenting on the results on social media. “To these logics, which do not belong to us, with extreme clarity towards all Italians, we have responded with the programming of active policies for employment and for the economic development of the southern regions“, continued the prime minister and, in this way, “we have proved the skeptics wronggiving Italy a new PNRR, which sees us in first place for financial progress and objectives achieved, we have reformed the cohesion policies, established the new Governance of the PNRR and the single SEZ of the South“.
All this was guided by the “awareness of the desire to cultural redemption and entrepreneurial aspects of the southern production system and the need to promote stable employmentto concretely bridge the structural gaps with the rest of the country“. Meloni also reeled off the data on the growth of the South, which also derives from “a significant increase in new jobs, equal to 2.6%, compared to an average rate of 1.8%“. The investments in public works and in strategic infrastructures, concluded the prime minister, in the South “go from 8.7 billion in 2022 to 13 billion in 2023, with an increase of more than 50%“. The intervention of the Foreign Minister was also satisfied, Antonio Tajaniwho underlines that the Svimez data “on GDP growth in the South certify the Government’s commitment to protecting the South. After 8 years, the GDP of the South is growing more than the North, with positive implications also on employment with an increase of +2.6% in the last year. The South is growing, all of Italy is growing“.
Words of satisfaction also come from the president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifaniwho emphasized that “the increase in GDP of 2.2% makes Sicily the Italian region to have recorded the highest growth in 2023“. The objective that the Region has set itself for the near future, added the governor, is to “make the best use of all resources e without any waste“. The Minister for European Affairs, the South, Cohesion Policies and the Pnrr, Raffaele Fittorejoices in the “encouraging numbers, which confirm the effective roadmap undertaken by the Meloni Government in planning strategic interventions for the development and growth of Southern Italy“. The group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the Chamber of Deputies, Thomas Fotidefines the Svimez report as a “double slap to the oppositions“, why not only “it is noted that the GDP of the South in 2023 grew by 1.3% above the national average, but the Pnrr was decisive for this development with the advancement of public investments which grew decisively in the South“.
These numbers, concludes the Honorable Member, deny “the narrative of the left according to which the Meloni government works for split the nation through the important reforms, proposed to Italians and approved in Parliament“.
