Il Southern Italy grows more than the Center and North. This rather surprising figure is narrated by the Ismea-Svimez report, according to which the GDP of the South grew by 0,8% between 2015 and 2016, against 0,5% in the Centre-North. A result linked above all to the primary sector, agriculture, which marks an increase of 7,3% against the +1,6% of the same sector in the Centre-North.
Added value, exports, investments and employment are growing in the South. In the South, in fact, employment growth was 12,9%, more than the Italian average. The weight of youth agricultural entrepreneurship is also rising with almost 20 companies born in the South in the first months of last year.
Despite the relative stagnation of industry (-0,3%) and services (+0,8%), the South (and especially Calabria and Campania) grows with agriculture, also on the export front: +15,5, 9,6% southern agricultural products (Centre-North +7,6%) and 6,3% food products from the South (Centre-North +XNUMX%).
As mentioned, employment is also improving, again thanks to agriculture: +5.8% in the first quarter of 2016 and +6,5% in the second, with an increase of 9,1% for the under 35s. Agriculture seems therefore having assumed a leading role in the creation of new youth employment in the South. In the first half of 2016, youth employment in agriculture grew by 11,3% in Italy, and by 12,9% in the South, with a decisive contribution from full-time work (+14,4%).
Youth entrepreneurship is also on the increase, growing above all in Basilicata, Calabria and Molise, closely followed by Campania, Sicily and Sardinia, even if in this case the legacy of an imbalance remains which makes an adequate generational turnover very difficult.
In this regard, the comment of the association of cooperative banks has also arrived, present in a capillary manner in the area with 2.171 branches (35% of the total branches present in the area) and more than 40% in 17 southern provinces. The market share of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises is equal to 27,2%, 2,5 percentage points above the national average.
“These results – commented the Secretary General of the National Association of Popular Banks, Giuseppe De Lucia Lumeno – confirm how the synergy between businesses and banks can make the entire system more resilient and more responsive. A synergy that is guaranteed above all by those who, by their nature and origin, know the area and are able to trust and therefore finance a new entrepreneurship made up of small-sized companies, made up of young people who rediscover the value of the land and concentrate on the quality and export of products but also on related activities, such as agritourism and renewable energy. This system, which can play a leading role in relaunching the Italian economy, must be safeguarded and encouraged. It can be an example of fighting youth unemployment and economic stagnation to reduce the gaps that still exist in terms of employment, social cohesion and development between the various areas of the country”.
