Between light and shadow, theItalian economy showed its resilience in 2022. "The growth in GDP recorded in 2022 by the Italian economy (+3,9%) gives us a picture of a country capable of rolling up its sleeves, despite the increase in energy prices and the inflationary pressure. The growth prospects for 2023, however, are not so rosy: there is talk of a zeroing of GDP, a slowdown of +0,6% compared to 2022. It is necessary to act immediately to reverse this perspective and preserve growth". She said it Alessandro Spada, President of Assolombarda, during the conference “The world in 2023: will it be calm after the storms? Scenarios for businesses, between risks and opportunities" promoted by Ispi, Assolombarda and Sace, underlining that there are three priority issues on which action must be taken.
Energy, work and innovation: the priorities according to Assolombarda
According to the number one of Assolombarda, there are priorities on which action must be taken "to protect the productive fabric of the territory, the engine of growth of the entire country". And I'm: the energy, work e innovation. As far as energy is concerned, what is needed “is to develop a real energy policy. The road to decarbonisation has been traced, but we must go ahead without prejudice with technological neutrality through the use of a mix of sources: from the use of renewables to that of hydrogen, from the commissioning of waste-to-energy and regasification plants up to the recovery of nuclear studies". Then the request to the Government: "Lower the energy sales threshold established by the energy release to make the price competitive with current market values".
You need a lot more at work. For Spada, “we need to act quickly on wages, especially now that inflation is approaching 12%. We will never stop asking for a real reduction in the tax wedge of 16 billion: it is the only way to bridge the gap with Europe, with which we have a difference of 12 percentage points to the detriment of Italian wages. The cut in the tax wedge applies to all the most vulnerable workers and in particular to young people, for whom we have proposed a 5% tax relief for the first five years of working activity".
And finally there is innovation. “In particular, the tools of Industry 4.0essential levers of growth. Unfortunately, the 2023 Budget Law was unable to find the resources necessary to refinance the Industry 4.0 Plan and we have witnessed a weakening of many useful tools. We know that the Government has undertaken to find the resources and that negotiations are underway with the European Union regarding the possibility of using the complementary funds of the PNRR for this purpose: we hope that the go-ahead will arrive as soon as possible", he said. President Spada concluded.
