The pandemic has not aggravated the economic gap between Northern and Southern Italy. The Bank of Italy writes it in its latest Report on regional economies, released on Thursday. Indeed, according to the Via Nazionale technicians, it is true that in recent months "the recovery has been more marked in the North than in the rest of the country"; however, during the most acute phase of the Covid emergency, the North had also experienced a heavier drop in gross domestic product than the Center and South. The deeper drop is therefore compensated for by the higher rebound, so that – eventually – in the gap between the macro-areas of Italy there are no significant variations.
In short, the situation has not worsened, but it certainly has not improved: the North-South gap in our country remains wide and is connected to historical and structural reasons. According to Bankitalia, however, it is precisely in this period that there is an opportunity to start filling it: the implementation of the measures envisaged in the National recovery and resilience plan (Pnrr), especially those for the digital development, would be a crucial step to reduce the lag of the southern regions.
From this point of view, an indicator of the digitization level territorial calculated on 2019 data highlights the strong backwardness of the southern regions compared to the Italian average. Of the five components of the index, only the one relating to connectivity (both in terms of network coverage and diffusion among households) is overall homogeneous throughout the national territory.
The sector in which the differences are most marked is instead that of digital skills, where the Center stands out. As for the integration of digital technologies in company production processes, there are no surprises: the driving force of Italy is the North West. Finally, the component that evaluates e-government it reaches maximum values in the North East, both in the offer of digital public services and in their use by citizens.
