Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta
on Friday stressed the importance of migrant workers for the
Italian labour market amid a demographic decline linked to the
nation's falling birth rate in his Concluding Remarks at the
presentation of the central bank's Annual Report for 2023.
He said that, while increases in employment rates "could
counterbalance the effects of the population decline and keep
the number of employed people unchanged, it is also possible
that support for employment (will come) from a greater flow of
legal immigrants than hypothesized by (national statistics
agency) Istat".
Panetta said the arrival of migrant workers "will have to be
managed, in coordination with other European countries" and he
said "integration measures" need "strengthening".
He also lamented the impact of young people leaving Italy to
seek "better job prospects abroad", saying 525,000 had emigrated
between 2008 and 2022.
"This exodus weakens our country's human capital endowment," he
said.
Premier Giorgia Meloni has said that giving more help to
families and reversing the declining birth rate so Italy does
not need to rely on the influx of migrant workers is one of the
government's main priorities.
Panetta added that Italy was "not doomed to stagnation.
"The recovery recorded after the pandemic crisis has been higher
than forecast and than the other major economies in the area,"
he said.
"Today some indicators seem to tell us that a turnaround is
possible".
But he also warned that "we must not be under any illusions: our
economy still suffers from serious problems, some deep-rooted
and difficult to solve" and referred to the underdevelopment of
southern Italy and the high public debt.
Italy's GDP rose by 0.3% in the first quarter of this year
compared to the previous three months, Istat said on Friday,
confirming the preliminary estimate the national statistics
agency had given at the end of April.
It said GDP was up by 0.7% compared to the first quarter of
2023, up slightly from its provisional year-on-year estimate of
0.6%.
Italy's annual inflation rate was stable in May at 0.8%,
according to preliminary estimates released by Istat on Friday.
The agency said its consumer price index was up 0.2% compared to
April. It added that its harmonized index of consumer prices
(HICP), calculated on EU parameters, was also 0.8% in May, down
from 0.9% the previous month. According to Eurostat's flash
estimate, Italy's HICP was the third-lowest in the eurozone,
with only Latvia (0.2%) and Finland (0.5%) having lower
inflation.
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