In Italy, as in 17 other Member States of the European Union, there are still “excessive macroeconomic imbalances”, which require decisive political action by Italy and specific monitoring. The EU Commission writes it in a report published today in Brussels. The analysis is linked to the alert mechanism for the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances for 2016.
In particular, for Italy the indicators below the indicative threshold concern the loss of market share for exports (which however recorded a recovery), the level of debt (further increased) and of the unemployment, and rising youth and long-term unemployment rates.
The report notes that “the current account surplus increased further in 2014, helping to reduce the negative position regarding net international investment in the country, thanks to the increase in exports and weak domestic demand, which however is recovering in 2015. Some ground has been recovered for regarding the loss of market share in the exports, thanks to a contained increase in cost competitiveness indicators. However, the decline in labor productivity and the context of low inflation have held back further recoveries of competitiveness”.
The Commission then notes that, “while in the private sector the debt/GDP ratio remained stable, public debt increased further relative to GDP in 2014 due to negative growth, low inflation and persistent budget deficits. According to the report, the country's "economic weakness" "is also reflected in the decline in the share of investments in GDP, partly due to the further, slight contraction of credit to the private sector in 2014".
The Commission also underlines that "financial conditions, despite some improvements since mid-2014, continue to be burdened by the large stock of non-performing loans of the banks". As for the unemployment rate, the Commission notes that it peaked in 2014, as did long-term and youth unemployment, in a context where the percentage of NEETs (young people who are not in training and not looking for work) is high , ed)”.
La poverty and social indicators finally, they were “roughly stable in 2014, although at worrying levels”. In general, the Commission concludes, “the economic interpretation highlights relative problems to insufficient productivity growth (“subdued”), which slows down the prospects for growth and improvements in competitiveness, making it more difficult to reduce public debt”.
For this reason, the EU executive says it "deems it useful to carry out a further examination of the persistence of risks of macroeconomic imbalances and to monitor progress in overcoming excessive imbalances".
