On Monday, February 7th, 2022, a new appointment was held as part of the "1 hour of ... with ..." initiative, the webinar cycle organized by Bruschi for all employees and recently extended to stakeholders and former employees, which aims to provide food for thought on socio-economic issues.
The guest of the day was prof. Marco Fortis, director and vice president of the Edison Foundation and columnist for Il Sole 24 Ore. The professor. Fortis graduated in Political Science from the Catholic University of Milan, where he is now a professor of Industrial Economics and Foreign Trade and a member of the Scientific Committee of the University's Research Center in Economic Analysis and International Economic Development (CRANEC). He is also Commander and Grand Officer of Merit of the Italian Republic. He was the economic adviser of the Prime Ministers Mario Monti and Matteo Renzi, the ministers Teresa Bellanova and Emma Bonino, the minister of finance Giulio Tremonti, and of the deputy minister Adolfo Urso.
From May 2006 to May 2007 he was vice president of Banca Popolare di Intra. He has published numerous essays and articles in Italy and abroad on the topics of the Italian economy, industry, technology, development, and international trade.
1 hour of… with… Marco Fortis
Professor Marco Fortis explored the issues related to the current Italian economic situation, its placement in the international scenario, and the prospects of the Recovery Plan, also known as PNRR (National Resilience Recovery Plan).
In particular, during the meeting, prof. Fortis dealt with the theme of the Italian economy between recovery and transition. Professor Fortis talked about the current economic situation, specifying the GDP growth in 2021 in some economically advanced countries. For Italy, last year brought positive results. There was a very consistent recovery. GDP had an average annual growth of 6.5%, higher than Sweden (5.0%), the United States (5.7%), and South Korea (4.0%) (data source: Edison Foundation elaboration on Eurostat and OECD data).
Professor Fortis also wrote an article entitled "The recovery will restart from the industry" in December 2020 in Il Sole 24 Ore, quite prophetic because the manufacturing industry was the first great engine of the recovery, followed by the construction and tourism, which are other sectors with significant growth.
Italy not only had positive results for the current GDP but also went beyond the forecasts of the International Monetary Fund of January 2021: the GDP forecasts were 3.0%. Instead, the current growth was more than double ( 6.5%) (data source: Edison Foundation elaboration of Istat, Eurostat, OECD, and IMF data).
Professor Fortis then analyzed the dynamics of private consumption in the first three quarters of 2021 in the G7 + Spain countries: Italy has a higher percentage (6.8%) than many other countries such as France, the United States, Canada, and Germany. That is due to the recovery in families' consumption, particularly the consumption of goods for housing and tourism, and catering (data source: Edison Foundation elaboration on OECD data).
While other countries have partially supported their recovery with public sector consumption, notably the United Kingdom, Italy has grown only with the private sector.
Professor Fortis then concluded his speech by proving optimistic about GDP growth also in 2022 and 2023.
In conclusion: a review of the Italian economy
This 1 hour of ... with ... was an opportunity to take stock of the Italian economy: prof. Fortis underlined how important Italy is internationally and above all, how it was the second manufacturing in Europe in 2019 (data source: Edison Foundation elaboration on Eurostat data), with a value of production of € 988,689 billion, a value-added of € 266,943 billion, and a number of employees of € 3,957 billion: before Italy, only Germany which has a higher production value.
Particularly important, says prof. Fortis is also the Metalworking sector in Italy, which positions us as the sixth country in the world: this data, which closely concerns Bruschi, is decidedly encouraging.
Thanks to this intervention, it was possible to analyze Italy's economic context and compare it with other countries, thus having a general view of the historical period we are going through and trusting in a 2022 with greater growth prospects.
