An economic hub
Sales of Italian products abroad increased by 10.3% in value in 2022. This positive rate benefits from a solid reputation for quality, whether in manufacturing or industrial products, service or after-sales service. Many Italian luxury goods are still in demand, from Paris to New York, from Abidjan to London, via Shanghai and Tokyo. Cars (Ferrari, Maserati), fashion (Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Ferretti, Prada, Max Mara), yachting (Ferretti, Azimut, Riva), leather goods, eyewear, interior design, etc., are all sectors that remain in the hands of the great industrial families of northern and central Italy, historic houses that have made their country an international reference for elegance and design.
The northwestern part of Italy, known as the Economic Triangle, occupies the southern part of Milan, where the main heavy industrial activities are concentrated, as well as the headquarters of national companies and state-owned companies, which have been largely privatized (Eni, Enel, Leonardo). A tertiary metropolis, Milan is also the country's financial capital, and is home to the media and culture. This economic pole is organized with Turin, the headquarters of the banking-finance-insurance consortium. It is also the stronghold of the car manufacturing giant, Stellantis, which was born from the merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler, the Italian-American (FCA) or Olivetti (office equipment). Finally, the city of Genoa, the natural gateway to southern Europe, a major player in international trade, is the largest port in Italy and the second largest in the Mediterranean after Marseille. At the crossroads of the world's maritime routes, the Ligurian metropolis capitalizes on shipbuilding, freight forwarding, maritime transport and cruise ship tourism.
Made in Italy owes a lot to the north of the country
The Emilia-Romagna and Veneto regions are also part of the industrial triangle and are home to the flagship brands of the Italian economy, such as Fincantieri (shipyards), Prysmian (energy and telecommunication cables), Saipem (oil exploration and drilling) and, more familiar to the French, Benetton (ready-to-wear clothing). In Northern Italy, the urban fabric is made up of three major ports (Genoa, Venice and Trieste) as well as medium-sized cities (Verona, Padua, Mestre, Trieste, Modena, Parma, Bologna, Florence), each of which offers an outlet for industries close to the countries of Central Europe. A strategic northern region, therefore, industrial, very dynamic. Family-run craft businesses, especially in Tuscany, innovative SMEs and powerful cooperatives, mesh a dense network of subcontractors and small structures, focused on product quality and design. This is the export strength of the Made in Italy label, in which food production participates. Primeurs, cereal producers (especially wheat and rice), pasta makers, olive oil producers, sparkling water producers, pork butchers, cheese makers, vinegar makers, grocers, pastry and chocolate makers, coffee roasters, wine and spirits merchants... these are just some of the many professions whose gourmet products sell very well outside France, so much so that they are often copied (but never equalled, as the advert says!).
Tourism returns to pre-pandemic levels
A strategic sector for Italy, tourism has recovered in 2022. Holidaymakers from abroad have almost doubled their visits to the Peninsula. Two out of three tourists come from the European Union. These tourists prefer cities of art and culture, seaside resorts, mountains and appreciate the Italian gastronomic offer. This is what emerges from a report by Coldiretti, the main union representing the agricultural world in Italy, based on the latest data from Bankitalia.
However, the vagaries of the weather, including snow cover, which is tending to diminish, could eventually impact the winter sports sector, which is still very buoyant in northern Italy. Usually, the December-January-February season is in full swing at the foot of the ski areas (Dolomites, Alpe de Siusi, Courmayeur, Livigno, Monterosa, Cervinia, Bormio or Sestriere), in more or less glamorous resorts. In recent years, the capricious snow is not enough to ensure the entire winter season.
The 2022 summer season was marked by two natural disasters directly related to global warming. Between Italy and France, in the Mont Blanc massif, the Brenva glacier collapsed on August 24, taking with it the Bivouac de la Fourche, a mythical refuge for mountaineers, built in 1935 at an altitude of 3,674 m. No casualties to be deplored this time but for the mountaineers, who knew the "hut" well, there is only one explanation : the high temperatures have reduced the thickness of the ice cap, which has destabilized the rocky base, only one month after the tragedy in the Marmolada mountain (Dolomites) on July 3, 2022. The partial rupture of the glacier at 3,000 m had then resulted in tons of ice and rock tumbling down the valley at more than 300 km / h, taking the lives of 11 hikers. The degradation of the permafrost and the acceleration of the movement of debris represent a potential problem for the habitat and the high altitude infrastructures (cable cars, railroads, telecommunication installations, anti-avalanche protections). Mountain professions must reinvent themselves.
Another subject of concern concerns the seaside residences, occupied year-round or secondary. On the tourist axis Cesenatico, Rimini, Riccione (Adriatic coast) a high risk of soil erosion is observed. The cause is the rise in sea level, flooding, landslides, but also the high urbanization. According to the Italian Observatory of the Coastal Landscape, 40 million square meters of the Italian coastline are already affected. The demand for seaside resorts could also decrease in this area.
Agriculture in danger
Northern Italy, which represents the main water reserve for the country's most fertile land and provides 40% of national agricultural production, experienced the worst drought in 70 years in 2022. Rising temperatures (+2°C), a 45% decrease in rainfall on the Po Delta, the rice fields of Emilia-Romagna suffered and in 2023 for the second year in a row, Italy, which grows 50% of the rice produced in Europe, was forced to reduce the area of its rice-growing land to 211,000 hectares. According to Coldiretti figures, fruit, vegetable and cereal crops have also suffered heavy losses, while the price of fertilizer, due to the war in Ukraine, has continued to rise. More broadly, it is the entire fruit and vegetable sector that is penalized. Exports, whose overall turnover reached 5 billion euros - thanks in particular to tomato products - have fallen to 1 billion euros. On the production of olive oil, it is Puglia, the main olive growing region of Italy, which is suffering the blow (-40% in 2022). This negative impact on the productivity of the agricultural sector leads to an unprecedented decline in activity.
In response to the crisis, the Italian government has announced that it is working on a national plan to limit the effects of the drought. One of the priorities would be to improve infrastructure and renovate the network of water pipes, which would lose about 36% of drinking water.
As the main beneficiary of the recovery and resilience plan provided by the european Union in Brussels, which includes 191.5 billion euros in loans over the period 2021-2026, the government has been able to release an exceptional 36.5 million euros in aid for agriculture.
Anchoring ourselves in Europe
The coalition formed by Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia (far right), Matteo Salvini's Lega (notably anti-migrant) and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (right), which came to power in September 2022, is still in the lead in the regional elections of February 12-13, 2023, in the face of an unstructured opposition and despite a large abstention. From her very first speeches, the new Prime Minister, who was an admirer of Mussolini in her youth, firmly anchored Italy at the heart of the EU and NATO, while denying any proximity to fascism.
On the economic front, Giorgia Meloni, the head of government, has had to face the facts: Italy is dependent on Brussels. Her populist and sovereignist campaign platform has come up against reality. The President of the Council is therefore continuing the European dynamic initiated by her predecessor, Mario Draghi, former President of the ECB. The composition of her government, with Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia), former president of the European Parliament, as foreign minister and Raffaele Fitto (centre-right) as minister for Europe, also reflects this desire to appease her European partners.
If the lull continues, will Giorgia Meloni, the first female head of government in Italian history, become the donna provvidenziale? Will the woman who refuses to feminize her title and calls herself "Madam President" succeed in preserving this political stability? That is what her electorate wants to believe. Expectations are numerous. Among them, the possibility of an early retirement for women (after 41 years of contribution), the decrease of taxes on fuels, the fight against inflation and the uberization of the country, the unemployment of young people, the demography in half-mast, the end of the income of citizenship (equivalent of the French RSA), in a country where the value of work is sacred, where the social expenditure is very observed.
On the management of migratory crises, tensions within the coalition are palpable, especially between the head of government and the head of the Lega. Against a backdrop of dramatic shipwrecks off the Italian coast, Giorgia Meloni passed a decree law in March 2023 aimed at imposing harsher penalties on smugglers and illegal migrants, while showing greater openness to receiving legal migrants. Matteo Salvini, on the other hand, is calling for a decisive brake on the issuance of residence permits, to send a strong signal of a dissuasive policy of closing the borders. It is therefore within the ruling coalition that the risk of instability could return, in a country that has seen no less than 67 successive governments in 74 years since its constitution came into force (1948).
