According to a report by the Study Center of the General Confederation of Industry (Cofindustria), published this Saturday by the newspaper La Repubblica, the situation is very complex because “gas price increases have gotten out of hand since August”.
The analysis shows that “the resilience of the industry has faltered after too many months of the impact of expensive energy on company margins.”
On the other hand, “record inflation is eroding household income and threatening consumption, which is (partially and not for long) protected by accumulated savings,” the document adds.
The Confindustria study includes two econometric simulations for the energy price in 2023, one based on the average value for August of 235 euros/MWh and the second on 298 euros/MWh, the average level expected in the future.
In the first case, the impact on the Italian economy is estimated at a lower gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.2 percent, while in the second scenario it would be 3.2 percent accumulated over the biennium 2022-2023.
The National Association of Farmers of Italy (Coldiretti) also released a report last Friday saying that food prices have risen by 10.5 percent in recent months and more than half of the population has reduced their purchases.
The report points out that rising costs are severely affecting the entire food chain, starting with rural areas, where one in ten farms is in such a critical situation that activity has to be suspended.
Coldiretti adds that 34 percent of farms are currently forced to work in negative income conditions due to rising prices.
The cost increase ranges from +170 percent for fertilizer to +90 percent for animal feed and up to +129 percent for diesel, he says.
Faced with such a situation, Ettore Prandini, President of Coldiretti, called on the government to take immediate action to curb the accelerated rise in energy prices and the increase in production costs in order to “save the farms”.
ro/ort