Italian families are trying to raise their heads thanks to the economic recovery underway after years of severe crisis. This is demonstrated by the data published today, 31 May, by the Bank of Italy in the Annual Report for 2016.
Household disposable income increased by 2016% in 1,6 compared to the previous year, reinforcing the recovery that began in the spring of 2013. In three years, the increase in income in real terms was 3%, although the percentage remains 8,1% lower than in 2007 .
Not only that, based on estimates by Via Nazionale, the gross wealth of households grew by 0,8%, a figure that also had effects on the greater propensity to save.
Families therefore begin to get back on top thanks above all to the greater boost deriving from employee income resulting from the increase in employment. An increase is also recorded for self-employment income and property income.
For income inequality equivalents, the figure remained almost unchanged compared to the previous year, after the drop of 0,4% in 2015. "A contribution to the reduction of inequalities - underlines Bankitalia - presumably came from the recovery in employment which began in mid-2014. Data from the Labor Force Survey also confirm that the decline in inequality in the labor income of non-retired individuals between the ages of 15 and 64 is mainly due to the growth in employment”.
The improvements are therefore there and bode well for the future, despite the still significant difficulties within the framework. First of all, the share of individuals a risk of poverty and social exclusion, which in 2016 stood at 28,7%, three percentage points more than in the pre-crisis phase (2007) and above all five points more than the average figure recorded in the European Union. “The number of individuals in conditions of absolute poverty – reads the Annual Report of the Bank of Italy – was equal to 7,6 per cent of the population, the highest value since 2005.
Why does poverty remain at such high levels? The reason behind this trend, according to Via Nazionale, lies in the fact that the employment improvements recorded over the last three years have involved to a lesser extent the segments of the population most exposed to risk, i.e. "workers with a low level of education, foreigners or under 35 years of age”. Despite this, it should be emphasized that the growth in employment has in any case reached greater homogeneity than in the past, extending to the families most exposed to the risk of poverty. The new inclusion income, which came into force in March 2017 as a measure to combat poverty, could also help improve the situation. However, Bankitalia warns, the new instrument will only be effective by "putting in place adequate services for families to guarantee them greater social inclusion", but also by limiting the possible incentives to remain indefinitely in the program and verifying the actual conditions of need.
