The year 2013 brought about a turning point for small and medium-sized enterprises in the European Union. Compared to 2012, an increase in total employment in EU SMEs of 0,3% is expected, while the added value should grow by 1%.
After five years dominated by uncertainty and stagnation, when not recession, in 2013 a combined increase in total employment and the added value generated by them is expected for the first time, not only in the EU but also in Italy. The first forecasts for 2014 indicate a further acceleration of these positive developments. These are the conclusions of the annual report on the performance of SMEs which the European Commission published today in Brussels, on the initiative of the Commissioner for Industry Antonio Tajani.
“I am pleased to note – Tajani said – that SMEs are about to resume the path of growth and are starting to hire more staff. They will grow further in 2014. SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy and are helping us emerge from the EU's worst economic crisis in the last 50 years”.
The positive trend is also confirmed in Italy, where the curves of the three factors taken into consideration by the EU report (total employment in SMEs, their number and the added value generated by them) clearly begin to go back up precisely from 2013, albeit with a different slope (more pronounced for value added and number of businesses, less for employment), and in any case still remaining clearly below the pre-crisis levels of 2008.
In 2012, there were more than 3,69 million SMEs in Italy, with approximately 12 million employees, which generated 422 billion euros a year. SMEs represented 99,9% of the national total of enterprises and 68% of the added value they generated, and 80% of jobs in the private non-financial sector. After the 2008-2009 crisis that hit them hard, Italian SMEs had a brief recovery, with an increase in added value, between 2009 and 2010, but then the decline started again, until 2012, when it stopped the descent of the three curves.
Larger companies, the report notes, have had fewer problems than SMEs in recovering from the crisis, because they are comparatively better equipped to take advantage of the growth potential of emerging economies. The Commission draws attention to the "growing administrative rigidity of banks in granting loans and guarantees to SMEs which adds up to differentiated rates between large companies and SMEs, higher than in other countries due to the persistence of the economic crisis and the cuts consumption and investment in the public and private sector".
However, the Commission recalls, the Italian government has undertaken initiatives to improve the conditions in which SMEs operate, in particular by making the Administration more responsive to the needs of companies and making it easier for companies to group together and internationalize their activities.
