>>>ANSA/Panetta stresses role of migrants on labour market

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 31 - 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. (ANSA).