Over the next few years, the southern regions will receive €212 billion of new public funding, of which 80 billion from the PNRR, 40% of the total resources of the Plan. This is what emerges from the Mezzogiorno bulletin of SRM, a study center connected to the Intesa Sanpaolo group.
Noon: all funding arriving
A shower of billions is therefore on its way to the South. The study center linked to Intesa recalls that "the funds of the PNRR must be used by 2026 and will be aimed above all at reducing the existing gap with the rest of the national territory, also leveraging on the complementarity with the other resources made available for the South of the country".
But the 54 billion from the 2021-2027 structural funds, the 9,4 billion from React-EU, the 58 billion from the Development and Cohesion Fund, the 9,4 billion for the Salerno-Reggio Calabria high-speed train will also be discharged into the South and €1,2 billion from the Just Transition Fund, for a total of €212 billion in new financing.
The new bulletin also measures the resources already committed up to December 2021 and the implementation in terms of spending on overall availability. “The 2014-2020 programming had allocated more than €19,5 billion of resources (ERDF and ESF) to the Mezzogiorno, including national co-financing, with an implementation in terms of expenditure equal to 61,6% of the total availability, of which 9,5 .2,5 billion drawn from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and XNUMX billion from the ESF (European Social Fund)".
Southern Italy: active businesses and employment are growing
Lastly, the bulletin gives a snapshot of the situation of active businesses in the South. At the end of 2021, 1 million and 742 thousand businesses were active in the South, according to the SRM bulletin, up (+1,5%) compared to the previous year. In particular, observes the study center, partnerships have decreased (-1,1% to 172.227 companies), while both joint-stock companies (+5,8% to 381.605 companies) and sole proprietorships (+0,5. 1.131.753% to XNUMX units). A similar trend can be seen in the Centre-North and in the rest of Italy”.
It is positive that the number of active Southern companies is growing in all the main sectors, such as the construction (+3.4%), the ctrade and agriculture (+0,3%), while manufacturing activities are down (-0,2%). The number of employed in the South, according to SRM processing on Istat data, grew by 1,9% at the end of the fourth quarter to 6 million 34 thousand individuals, less than the figure referring to the Centre-North (+2,8%) and the national (+ 2,6%).
Mezzogiorno: exports are also positive
The last aspect addressed by the survey is that relating to trade. Import-export with foreign countries in the South in 2021 amounted to over €109 billion, up by 24,3% compared to the previous year, a higher increase than in the Centre-North (+19,8 %) and the national figure (+21,2%). Imports from the southern regions amounted to 58,5 billion (+32%) and exports to almost 51 billion (+16,5%). Exports to all countries in the reference areas have increased, underlines the SRM bulletin, especially to the euro area, which are the main reference market for southern exports with growth of 17,4%. Looking at the main sectors by export value, they show an increase i oil products (+71,5% to 10,4 billion) e the food (+6,2% to 6,6 billion), while exports of means of transport are down (-9,2%).
