It's not a good time for Milan and Lombardy. The management of the health emergency has revealed several flaws for the past 13 months, and Covid has also been a severe blow to the economy of a region that remains the driving force of the country (approximately one fifth of the national GDP is produced here) . A recent study presented by Assolombarda provided merciless numbers: in 2020, Lombardy lost 13,5 billion euros in foreign sales and records over 77 fewer employed people (above all less educated, temporary employees and young people). The drop in exports in percentage terms is 10,6%, a very heavy figure even if compared to the national average, which is limited to a negative -9,7%.
The performance must be differentiated sector by sector, but in any case it emerges that only the pharmaceutical and food sectors have survived (+7,6% and +1,3%); all the others are in red: electronics (-4,2%), electrical appliances, (-7,1%), chemicals, (-7,4%), rubber-plastic (-9,1%). Even worse, mechanics, metals and automotive, all key sectors for the local economy which record losses between -12% and -15%. And not to mention the fashion system, which in the last calendar year it lost almost 20% of foreign sales.
The retreat of Lombardy's foreign trade affects all global destinations, with a more pronounced impact on European markets (-11,0% in 2020 compared to 2019) compared to non-EU countries (-10,1%): Germany (-10,9%), France (-12,8%) and Spain (-12,7% ) alone explain about a third of the 2020 decline in regional foreign sales. The effects on employment are inevitable: according to Assolombarda, at the end of 2020 the employed in the region headed by Milan decreased by 77 thousand units, even worsening the score of the 2009 crisis, when in absolute terms the jobs lost were a little ' less than 60.000.
Despite the parachutes put in place by this Government and by the previous one, there was therefore the dreaded hecatomb. Most of the loss of employment in Lombardy is concentrated among temporary employees (-66 thousand, equal to -15% compared to 2019) and men (-51 thousand). Furthermore, young people (-46 under 35s) and the least educated (-80 employed with a middle school diploma) are particularly affected. Among the macro sectors, the greatest decline affects commerce, hotels and restaurants (-40 thousand employed), which suffer most from the distancing imposed by Covid-19, while in industry the decline is more contained (-25 thousand).
However, there are some positive signs. In the meantime, half the joy is common, says the proverb. Lombardy's performance, although this is by no means consoling, is no worse than that of the other European locomotive regions: -10,3% Catalonia, -10,6% Auvergne Rhône Alpes (France), -11,3% Bavaria, -7,3% Baden-Württemberg, also in Germany. And then there is the recovery, which Lombardy has already hooked up: international trade returned to pre-Covid levels already in November, and in fact the foreign sales of Lombard companies in the last quarter of 2020 are only -2,3% lower than a year earlier, after -7,9, 27,3% in the third quarter and the vertical drop of -XNUMX% in the April-June period.
