Italy and Finland are the only members of the Eurozone that saw productivity declines in 2013. Even Greece has seen growth. And in the general classification of competitiveness, our country still loses positions, slipping from the behind Spain, which launched a labor reform deemed more effective. This is what emerges from a report that the European Commission will approve today.
According to Brussels, the Italian decline of the last 10 is due to the combined effect of small increases in gross wages and insufficient growth in competitiveness. To improve the situation, the EU Commission has repeatedly urged Italy to shift the reduction of the tax burden from the home to work and businesses. As for the chapter the energy, together with Cyprus, our country records the highest costs in the entire Eurozone.
The report – anticipated by Adnkronos – underlines that since 2007 a strong deindustrialization: production has collapsed by 20%, despite the share of total value added in the manufacturing economy remains "slightly above the EU average".
In general, most EU countries have problems (except Germany, which records good results). The "high energy costs", the "bureaucracy", the "low spending on research and innovation" and the "problems in accessing credit" weigh above all.
