Italians make few plans for the future, they live in a sort of "collective existential lethargy", pursuing "particular interests" and increasing "inequalities". But they save a lot. This is the picture that emerges from the 49th report on the social situation in the country published this morning by Census.
According to the analysis, individuals, families and businesses remain in a "securizing but inertial enclosure: the result is a society with low consistency and little self-propulsion, a sort of Italian limbo made up of half-tones, half-classes, half-parties, half-ideas and half people".
In the meantime, however, the value of Italians' financial assets amounts to more than 4 trillion euros: in four years (June 2011-June 2015) the increase was 401,5 billion (+6,2% in real terms) . In the years of the crisis, the composition of the household financial asset portfolio sanctioned the transition to a "strongly defensive" option: cash and bank deposits rose from a share equal to 23,6% of the total in 2007 to 30,9 % in 2014, while shares (from 31,8% to 23,7%) and bonds (from 17,6% to 10,8%) collapsed.
In the last twelve months (June 2014-June 2015) the precautionary option of Italians is confirmed, with an increase of 45 billion euros in liquidity (+6,3%) and 73 billion in insurance and pension funds (+9,4, 10%), and with the renewed contraction of shares and equity investments (1,2 billion less, equal to a reduction of XNUMX%).
However, the diversity lies in the surge in mutual fund shares, a sign of an easing of the grip of anxiety: 108 billion more in one year (+32,8%). “However, there is no going back to the confident assumption of individual risk, aware that gambling would leave deep scars on one's solitary personal biographies”, underlines Censis. On the other hand, savings are still the lifeboat in everyday life, given that in the past year 3,1 million households had to dip into savings to address income gaps compared to monthly expenses.
HYBRID CAPITALISM
On the business side, according to Censis, whoever exports wins (export is worth 29,6% of GDP), but above all who manages to invent a new style of Made in Italy "through hybridization", the transformation of traditional sectors , combining “quality, artisan know-how, aesthetics and brand”. According to the results of the analysis, the winning sectors are the production of machinery and equipment, with a surplus of 50,2 billion euros in 2014, the agri-food sector, with a 6,2% increase in exports in the first eight months this year, clothing, leather goods, furniture, jewels and a “transversal by vocation” sector, the creative-cultural one, with 43 billion in exports.
CONSUMPTION STARTS AGAIN BUT 5 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS ARE NOT ADDING UP
Consumption restarts, but the social divide reopens. For the first time since the beginning of the crisis, the share of Italian families who have increased their spending capacity in the last year is higher than that of families who have instead reduced it (25,6% against 21,3% %). However, the number of families who are unable to cover all expenses with their own income continues to grow, now approaching 20% of the total: about 5 million families have difficulty making ends meet and among those of socio-economic low, the percentage rises to 37,3%.
BRICK RECOVERY: MORTGAGE BOOM
The brick has begun to attract resources again. This is signaled by the boom in mortgage applications (+94,3% in the period January-October 2015 compared to the same period of 2014) and the trend in real estate transactions (+6,6% of home sales in the second quarter of 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year). The propensity to make income from real estate assets is spreading: 560.000 Italians declare that they have managed an accommodation facility for tourists, such as holiday homes or bed & breakfasts, generating an estimated turnover of around 6 billion euros, largely undeclared.
IN ITALY EUROPEAN RECORD OF YOUNG SELF-EMPLOYED WORKERS
Italy has the largest number of young self-employed workers among the main European countries: they are 941.000 (in the 20-34 age group), followed by 849.000 British and 528.000 Germans. Our country can also count on a pool of potential start-ups that is vital and in constant ferment. 15% of young Italians (16-30 years old) intend to launch a start-up in the next few years. And there are around 7.000 very young business owners more today than in 2009 (+20,4%) in some well-characterized sectors, achieving valuable results on a personal and systemic level. Among the most dynamic segments, a particular role is played by the catering and hospitality sector, in which almost 20.000 business owners under the age of 30 operate (9,8% of the total).
IN 6 YEARS FOREIGN ENTREPRENEURS +31,5%
Between 2008 and 2014 in Italy foreign business owners increased by 31,5% (especially in trade, which accounts for about 40% of all foreign businesses, and in construction, for 26%), while companies led by Italians decreased by 10,6%. Foreigners in Italy "follow a trajectory of growth towards the condition of the middle class, thus differentiating themselves from the situations of ethnic concentration and social unease that characterize the Parisian suburbs or the London innercities, where radical Islam becomes the vehicle of the rancor of the second and third generations for a betrayed promise of social ascent".
BOOM OF ONLINE SHOPPING AND SHARING ECONOMY
Censis estimates that 15 million Italians shop on the Internet: 2,7 million have bought food products online in the last twelve months and home banking is practiced by 46,2% of web users. And the success of the sharing economy makes the new styles of consumption even more evident. In the last year, 4% of Italians (about 2 million) used car sharing, but among young people the percentage rises to 8,4%.
