Italy is not growing: and hasn’t been for some time. In an IMF survey of economic growth in 179 countries, Italy was in 167th place. Needless to say, a statistic like this makes discussion of any other aspect of the economy extraneous.
It is, in fact, growth that enables a country to create new jobs, carry out investment, and build a modern and efficient welfare system. Strong economic recovery is therefore an essential condition for a structured development of our way of life, for bringing about a more widespread prosperity and, above all, for once more investing in sectors (I’m thinking of culture, education and the environment) we have been guilty of neglecting for decades.
Plainly speaking, growth is an increasingly dramatic issue for our country. But naturally we cannot restrict ourselves to merely recognising this fact. And now that political elections are on the horizon, I would like to see each candidate’s agenda focussed on this key issue.