Every day our country produces 5.8 billion euros of gross domestic product (GDP) which, conventionally, is measured through the sum of final goods and services generated in a given period of time.
It is called internal because it refers to what is generated both by national companies and by foreign companies present in a specific geographical area. These 5.8 billion correspond to 99 euros per day for every Italian citizen, including newborns and those over centenarians.
The regional differences are very evident: if in Trentino Alto Adige the GDP per inhabitant per day is equal to 146 euros, in Lombardy it is 131.8, in Valle d’Aosta 130.1, in Emila Romagna 118.9 and in Veneto of 110.8. On the other hand, in Campania the GDP per capita per day is 63.4 euros, in Sicily 60.1 and in Calabria 57.9.
From the comparison with the other countries of the European Union we see a significant gap, especially compared to the countries of Northern Europe. If in Luxembourg the daily wealth per inhabitant is 336 euros, in Ireland it is 266, in Denmark 179, in the Netherlands 164, in Austria 149, in Sweden 145 and in Belgium 140. Among the 27 countries of With 99 euros we are in 12th place in the EU.
- We no longer have big businesses
How to read the result that emerges from the European comparison reported above? First of all, it should be underlined that countries with few inhabitants, but with a significant presence of big companies and financial activities, tend to have levels of wealth that are significantly higher than others. Secondly, it should be noted that Italy is a country that no longer has very large companies and multinationals, but is characterized by a production system composed almost exclusively of micro and SMEs with high work intensity which, on average, records levels of productivity very high, provides lower salaries than larger companies – thus influencing the extent of consumption – and has lower levels of investment in research/development than those of large production companies.
- Until the early 1980s, however, we were leaders. Now we are thanks to SMEs
Net of inflation, over the last 30 years the average wages of Italians have remained stagnant, while in almost all of the EU they have increased. Among the causes of the Italian result are the asphyxiated economic growth and a low level of labor productivity which has affected our country since 1990, especially in the services sector. One of the causes of this result is also to be found in the fact that, unlike our main European competitors, in the last thirty years the competitiveness of our country has suffered from the absence of large companies. The latter have almost disappeared, certainly not due to the excessive number of small production companies, but due to the inability of the large players, often of a public nature, to withstand the challenge triggered by the change caused by the fall of the Berlin Wall and ” Tangentopoli”.
In fact, until the beginning of the 1980s, Italy was among the European – and in many cases also world – leaders in chemicals, plastics, rubber, steel, aluminium, IT, cars and in pharmaceuticals. Thanks to the role and weight of many public economic bodies (Iri, Eni and Efim) and large public and private companies (Montecatini, Montedison, Enimont, Montefibre, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Pirelli, Italsider, Polymer, Sava/Alumix, Olivetti, Angelini, etc.), these companies guaranteed employment, research, development, innovation and productive investments. Almost 45 years later, unfortunately, we have lost ground and leadership in almost all the sectors in which we excelled. And this happened not due to a cynical and cheating destiny, but due to some events that changed the course of history: the fall of the Berlin Wall, for example, reunified Europe, reactivated commercial relations with the countries present behind the “Iron Curtain”, pushing many of our large companies employed in the sectors where we were leaders out of the market.
Equally disruptive for our country were the effects caused by “Tangentopoli” which exposed the limits, in particular, of many state-owned companies which until then had remained active thanks to the protected market in which they operated and the political support that they had received from almost all the parties present in the so-called “first Republic”. Despite this, over the last 30 years Italy has remained among the most economically advanced countries in the world and this is due to its SMEs which, among other things, continue to “dominate” the international markets. (CGIA source)
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