Svimez 2023: everything you need to know
Last week was released the 50th edition of the Svimez Report, a famous document that each year analyze the state of economic and social development in Southern Italy.
Like every year, the Svimez Report on the economy and society of the Mezzogiorno was published. There are some concerning data on poverty and local and social infrastructure, while there is a great margin of growth in investments and green economy.
The economic growth in the South between 2021 and 2022 is recorded at 10.7, almost as high as the regions of the Center-North (+11 percent), and more than the Northwest (+9.9 percent). This recovery is to be appointed to the field of constructions (7 points above the Center-North average – 18.9 vs. 11.9) and services. However, it is easy to see that industry’s contribution was minimal (10 percent versus 24.5 percent in the Center-North).
Employment is also growing, especially in the service sector (+2 percent compared to +0.3 percent in the Center-Nord).
However, the data does not reflect the reality of workers: households in absolute poverty have increased in the South (+250k), as they have throughout the country (10.7 percent in the South and 7.2 percent in the North-Center), due to widespread precarity and low wages. In fact, the purchasing power of wages plummets nationwide, failing to catch up with the EU average.
Reasons include South/North demographic and generational differences, also due to domestic and international migration.
“The population of the Mezzogiorno shrank between 2011 and 2023 by more than a million people compared with substantial population stability in the Center-North. The decline in inland areas has been of double the intensity.”
Those leaving the South for the North are mainly young people under 35, most of them college graduates (20 thousand of 38 thousand young people in 2021). If this trend is not reversed, the South will go from being the youngest area in the country to the oldest.
What does Svimez identify as solutions?
We need to increase the employment rate of women and increase tertiary education.
Currently 7 out of 10 southern women are not working (the employment rate is less than half the EU average). But how can women find jobs if the South does not offer educational infrastructure services (daycare and full-time)?
“Deficits in the provision of school infrastructure and services generate a silent downward spiral in schools, families and in the society as a whole.”
Such services support female employment and are associated with lower dropouts (another figure in which Southern regions almost double the EU average), and a higher share of college graduates (between 2019 and 2023 there is an increase in graduates – 12.4 percent, although the overall share is far below the EU average – 25.1 in the South and 21.4 in the Islands versus 42.5 percent). The wage differential between college graduates and high school graduates is 41 percent in the South and 37 percent in the North-Center.
The creation of an economic and social infrastructure can change the negative trend in the Mezzogiorno. In the industrial field there are already many enterprises that have high economic performances and levels of investment in innovation and internationalization, which are above the relative sector averages.
For example, the South stands out for its renewable energy capacity (photovoltaic – +11% in 2022 – and wind +5%) and are now integrated into strategic European supply chains.
The report ends with a message, which Obiettivo Remain and many other southern stakeholders are already spreading: National growth can only happen through the development of all territories in the country, by finally viewing the North and the South of Italy as complementary.
For info and insights: https://lnx.svimez.info/svimez/