The economy of Lombardy is also slowing down, even if it continues to drive the Italian GDP. This is what emerges from the Booklet Economy of the month of September published by Assolombarda, which highlights that if the Italian economy marks a setback from spring 2018, in Milan and its surroundings, growth shows greater stability also in the second quarter. In fact, Lombardy's manufacturing production still grows between April and June by +0,3% in the quarter (0,0% in Italy), but loses the vigor of +1% in the 1st quarter of 2018 and the +3,7% recorded in 2017. Again in the 2nd quarter of 2018, Lombard exports increased by +4,4%, a positive result but once again slowing down compared to the 1st quarter of 2018 (+7,9%) and the exceptional momentum of 2017 ( when it had totaled a +7,5%).
The short-term prospects indicated by the Assolombarda document are therefore cautious, with the confidence indexes of Milanese manufacturing companies and the innovative tertiary sector and of consumers in the North-West dropping between spring and summer. The recovery of the labor market also continued between April and June: the number of employed people over the age of 15 is higher than the pre-crisis level of +187 thousand units. The employment rate leaps to 68,4% (from 67,6% a year earlier), confirming itself above 2008 levels and almost ten percentage points above the Italian average (59,1%). At the same time, the unemployment rate continues to fall (to 6,0% in the 2nd quarter of 2018, from 6,1% a year earlier), placing itself almost five points below the national average but still far from pre-crisis levels (3,7 .2% in the 2008nd quarter of XNUMX).
It also improves workplace safety. Accidents per employee (net of CIG) in 2017 recorded a reduction in Lombardy by -0,6% compared to 2016, a synthesis of opposite trends: a drop of -1,7% in those at work (which brings the decrease from 24,4 to -2012%) against an increase in those in transit (+3,5%). The first indications for 2018 are interlocutory, with a decrease of -3,9% in the first quarter and an increase of +1,4% in the second. With reference to industry alone, accidents per employee net of the CIG show a +2017% on an annual basis in the final 1,1 (due to a +0,7% at work and a +3,2% in transit ), a trend that seems to continue in the first few months of 2018 (+5% in the 1st quarter; +10% in the 2nd quarter).
Read Assolombarda Economics Booklet.
