The Problem With Italy’s Economy | Italian Economy 

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As an italian who have been living outside of the country for career reasons for 11 years now, uk first now usa, i do notice that iN spite of all this facTs and undisputable data the quality of life in italy is higher than the places i lived to have a career

You can't blame young people with ambition for seeking other pastures from the heavy burden the older generation has placed on their shoulders.

Nepotism in each and every sector, public or private, together with low wages and meager career opportunities are pushing Italy's best brains out of the country.

Thank you very much for giving a transparent and unbiased opinion of the Italian economy all the while being so concise. Unlike many other fatalist videos that are just there for clickbait, you underline the main challenges and solutions in a very detailed way. You clearly deserve way more followers than what you currently have.

As an Italian i feel so sad about our country, once one the most important and recognized internationally, becoming nothing but a theme park for tourists with no political or economical relevance. Our strongest pros are not pros anymore while the cons are growing making our land loosing all the appeal built in centuries of history. 😞I hope one day i’ll be able to see my country to get back to the old glory it deserves.

As an Italian that migrated abroad, I can confirm all of this is true. Other factors that are not mentioned is high criminality, high tax evasion and bureaucracy that doesn't allow companies to be set up easily.

A pretty grim, yet truthful, picture. The country has enormous potential. But corrupt politicians and a generalised aversion to paying taxes are big culprits in Italy’s economical decline. Which is a dreadful shame being such a beautiful country.

Basically the global issue is wealth hoarding over the last 50 years backed by policies to protect peoples wealth and prevent young people from being able to compete

You forgot to mention the small medium size companies do not invest on innovation and tech. The crumbling side is mostly the south and not the south and center.

As a person who studied and lived in Italy for almost 5 years, I can say that this is all true. Added to this, the rigidity they have in accepting a foreigner in the workforce.

As a young italian who reads a lot news, especially about the italian economy, I shared this video because is a perfect explanation of our current situation. Thanks a lot, you have a new sub👍

You forgot to mention "tax dodging" is a national sport in Italy.

Born and raised in Italy, I was working for 2.5€ per hour in Milan as electrician. I moved to the UK 5 years ago, and I am now in the 5% highest tax payers in Scotland and going to study for master this year and plan to build a business after. I wish I could have done this in Italy.

Italy is in a state of economic decline because old people have taken over the Italian nation at every rung of government and business. They don't allow competition and economic disruption from new businesses, and they swaddle themselves in very strict labor laws that make it almost impossible to fire old people. Thus young people are not given any room to come into the labor markets. The young are left to molder in highly unstable jobs without contracts or they flee Italy, taking their young energy and ambitions with them to other nations like the UK, Germany and America. The same is happening to Japan--the place is ruled by old people, for the benefit of old people. So Japan is also sinking fast economically. The basic reason why countries like the UK, Germany and America are still thriving economically is that they allow young people to come in and claim their spot in the labor markets. And in these three nations they're able to be successful career-wise and income-wise if they hustle and work hard. Old people have not taken over EVERYTHING in these three nations that are still growing.

The production level for how many subs you have is insane!

In fact, the triangle is actually Lombardia Veneto Emilia-Romagna, 3 regions which make 50% of italian GDP. Productivity doesn't grow because of burocracy, slow judicial system, public waste and inefficiency and population decline...

An interesting piece of information that could be interesting to analyze further is that you show that tax revenues are expected to approach public spending in the near future. It is always like this that the improvements are just around the corner. It's not just in Italy. The same applies in Spain and France. The interesting question is whether democracy can withstand the tightening of the belt.

As an Italian, everything is correct, but you forgot a few things: Our economy is mainly composed of small-medium sized companies, which are hard to regulate, evade a lot and the salary they offer is very low. But of course it's young people's fault who don't want to work; Overall salaries are below international standards, expecially for high tech sectors. that's why lots of young people emigrate. For example a software developer in Italy will earn, at the end of his career, less than someone who just started in Canada

This is the best video on the economy of my country. Thank you for this, please upload more, I love the explanations and the attention to detail. Much love and success! ❤

Underrated channel. High quality content. I hope you get more subs because you deserve it.

Hi! You forgot to point out that the inequalities start from an incorrect tax levy that is poorly distributed between those who produce wealth with work and those who enjoy economic rent (homes property and financials income). Furthermore, tax evasion is a problem that no political party has really wanted to solve. Getting paid with cash and not encouraging payment with debit and credit cards shifts the burden of public spending even more onto employees. In Italy you can have 1 million euros in your bank account and not pay taxes on your house and benefit from public healthcare for free if you are over 65. It's a crazy world!

Just a little correction, Nowadays the North industry is carried by the new Industrial Triangle(Milan,Bologna,Treviso) rather then the old Industrial tringle, thanks to the birth of lots of SMEs in that area around the 90s.

It is true they increased the "fertility check" but since it was basically zero to begin with, doubling it hasn't changed much. They will give you 1-2k € in the first year of the baby's life, then it stops. It's basically less than the taxes you will pay on baby expenses.

When doing "without dept" - comparisons you should also consider all the historical GDP-growth, investments, infrastructure you would lack if you hadn't spent that money

Damn, i thought this channel had hundreds of thousends subscribers, such a well made and detailed video. You deserve way more subs!

Until now most of meloni's policy was already drafted by draghi's previous government. The only policy they actually wrote themselves is the new "legge di bilancio" which has been endlessly criticized by many major international institutions, since there's no funds on increasing productivity and will lead to 16 billion euros of deficit. There is nothing substantially different between this new administration and previous ones, they ran on increasing pensions and stop austerity and cut spending (which no one can really do without further eroding our public services). The reasons you mentioned causing poor growth in italy were correct, but there's much more to it (low education, lacking productivity, not being able to devalue our currency just to begin with), the factors you mentioned can basically be applied to most countries in europe. I don't think you know too much about italian politics, (and neither you should if you're not italian) but this video seems at best an oversimplification and at worst some partisan opinion justified after having read a few online articles. The causes of our current situation are complex, and range from poor infrastructure, to over-regulation, to austerity in tandem with high debt and political instability (arguably partly caused by the US's past foreign meddling). If any solution is to be found it will be a slow process with many painful decisions to be made in the meantime, another right-win populist won't do much.

Its great that Daniel Radcliffe found a carreer narrating economy videos online!

Italy has been contributing a lot when it comes to distinct clothing design and linen we have been supporting them as South African🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦

What you states about the "child bonus" is incorrect: for someone to get the bonus, you need to have more than one child. A couple struggle to get enough money even for a single child, so having to have more than one to get any help render Meloni's "help" useless.

To quote Winston Churchill: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” I BELIEVE THIS IS WHERE WE ARE TODAY!

Another Amazing Video!

Explain this: The richest in Europe in savings and one of the highest in home ownership, have 4X less debt per household than the Dutch, 8th in the world in household net worth, 4th in Europe, 7th in the world in National Wealth, In terms of private wealth, Italy ranks #2 after Hong Kong in private wealth to GDP ratio Italy has the world's 8th highest quality of life 8th largest exporter in the world World's seventh-largest manufacturing country 3rd in total NET contributions to the EU among many others. Italy: #10 ...in Ultra High Net Worth Individuals Above USD $50M.. #7...just below India that has 25X the pop. Number of Millionaires by country: #7... In REAL wage growth, not skewered by exchange rates...between 2017 & 2018 in increased millionaires... #1 Gold reserves... #3 (from official eu statistics):industrial production by country Germany recorded the highest value of sold production, equivalent to 29 % of the EU total, followed by Italy (18 %), France (12 %), Spain (9 %), Poland (5 %) and the Netherlands (3%). The other 21 EU Member States contributed with smaller shares (up to 3 %).14 lug 2021 According to the German institute Stiftung Markwirtschaft, in 2018, the aggregate explicit debt + implicit debt of Italy is 122%, lower than the German one at 170%.

1:25 I think the data is old of 2021-2022 am I right? Bcz I just saw that UK's GDP was 3.1T$ India's GDP was 3.75T$ China had 19.9T$ and USA with 25T$... Just a correction.. After all the Video was Fantastic! You gained a new subscriber.

"inefficient" & "few new business" yeah this sums up Italy pretty good, as an Italian let me tell you... Everything and anything will be late, every task has to be done multiple times before it works, and waiting time for anything bureaucratic will be as long as it can, they can forget the task if it takes to long and you have to remind them and start again. most "professionals" will often refuse any task that requires effort, and most of the young can't find a "normal" job, as in anything they do is usually "in nero" translated to "in black" which basically means you get no contract & no reassurances you have to be paid or work a certain amount (mostly because workers cost a lot more with contracts as taxes are a thing), so you get paid poorly, you get no job experience for a resume, and you don't pay towards your pension (if you can live on your own at 30 years you are doing better than most) and the list somehow goes on... but we got good food so I guess its all alright

Spain has the same or greater problem with the birth rate but the population continues to grow (and in large numbers) due to massive Latin American and North African immigration. When I was in Italy recently I was surprised that the cities seemed "very Italian" compared to the Spanish cities. You went to a restaurant or ice cream parlor in Rome and most of those who served you were Italian. In Spain, in the big cities you go to a restaurant and only the owner is Spanish, the rest are usually Latin Americans/Maghrebies (generalizing, but it's usually like that). Only on the outskirts of Milan did I see something more similar to what happens in Spain. Forty years from now, Italy will have lost millions of inhabitants but will continue to be Italy, Spain will have gained a few more million but will be something else.

Bureaucracy is its demise...

That was actually on point. Well done!

Trouble with balanced budget approach is that the cuts will reduce market activity. Benefit checks are would be sales.

Amazing content man. Everything is clear, has actual economic theory involved and not just stuff anyone can google in 5 min, is to the point and no bullshit. If I can give just one point of advice, in my opinion you talk a bit quickly. If you just slow it down a bit you give more weight to the things you say. You earned a sub from me.

I enjoyed the video, but I think there are some inaccuracies. The 2012 debt crisis was far more devastating than the Covid pandemic in Italy. Of course the debt crisis was a by-product of the GFC, in a way, but the chaos that ensued led to a lost decade. The current Italian economy is above its pre-Covid levels (in both nominal and real terms), and will slightly grow this year (the IMF says Italy's GDP is set to record a +0,7% growth VS -0,5% for Germany and +0,5% in the UK). The North-South divide + excessive bureaucracy will continue to stifle growth & brain drain is a major threat, but the government announced that Italy will grant up to 452'000 visas under the Migration Flows Decree scheme to recruit workers from extra-EU countries, so to tackle the shortage of skilled workers in some segments of Italy's workforce. The EU's Recovery Plan will continue to sustain Italy's plans to achieve higher productivity, infrastructure & innovation in key economic areas. Lastly, some projects that could revitalise the economy will finally come to fruition in the coming years (to 2026): the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, the completion of infrastructure in the port of Genoa & the adjacent railway system, the consolidation of a 2 billion euro project (Milano Innovation District), where stakeholders (such as IBM, Berkeley University and LendLease are involved), the Rome Jubilee in 2025... as you said, Italy is the 8th largest economy in the world, after all.

Private Debt to GDP by Country: Italy 162 Sweden 307 France 280 Switzerland 274 Canada 270 Denmark 258 United States 218 They are living over their possibility.. be carefoul with numbers

To me the major problems are corruption and all the major criminal organizations. I live in the south, and in the past my town received funds from the government for a project. They (the local municipality, or "comune" in italian) spent very little on the project itself so just to get it started (so no one can complain the project doesn't exist despite the government funds) and then they spent the remaining funds on personal stuff like expensive cars. My municipality and all the neighboring municipalities have in them at least one person with ties to the local Camorra clan (neapolitan mafia). Those who try to change things live a short life.

This video about Italy’s situation is perfect, nothing to say. You deserve more visibility 💪🏻❤️

A great video with a realistic view of the country, very rare as the country it's often subject to a very simplistic analysis.

the only way to eliminate unemployment in southern italy would be to eliminate the rigid national wage bargaining scheme, “Contrattazione collettiva nazionale”, which impose minimum wages that are way beyond productivity in most of the south. but that is just too unpopular, so we can only wait and watch as the south depletes itself. for the rest, reforms are under way to fix many of the mentioned issues, let’s see if things will work out

Excellent presentation!

great analysis. subscribing :) thanks

They got no other choice except to develop Southern Italy and all along the East Coast. Italy can increase their productivity by reducing public spending in services and be more focused on infrastructure. Industrial efficiency is not seen in Italy as they relied on decades old infrastructure and the industrial shift towards south didn't happened as desired. Italy should increase taxes in moderation on Overseas Investments. All Information Technology and Tech Projects should be given to Italian Firms having presence in Eurozone.

I want to say the main problem with Italy fertility rate is not the number of children made (that's still a problem, doing 2 children is an economic challenge in italy) but from emigration. Many younger people think to leave the country, even low skilled people.

I can clearly see why this is happening. I've been trying to start my own start-up after moving to Italy. While talking to accountants, I almost feel guilty for aiming to have profit. Everything is so aggressive against entrepreneurship that you really feel that fascism isn't dead at all.

Young ones flee because salaries are shit here.

6:56 you should have also shown the development of the wages, as they are the key why Italy isint growing. Coupled with Italys hold on investment. You missed to mention that Italy indeed had primary surpluses for two decades, the same decades were Italys economy weren’t able to grow as not even the government invested and hold on austerity measures.

i think that all economies could use a policy of middle class companies being forced to put 10% of their income into a fund that must be used for productivity improving purchases. A doctor forced to use 10% of his income to buy equipment that makes his work faster or easier. Or a construction firm forced to use money on making custom equipment to make working less straining. Maybe an electrical cart, or a missing pump or a once missing small crane. Maybe requirement goes into effect if a company has been operating at a stable surplus for over 15 years. Then review the law every 5 years if it can be lowered, and in which cases it needs to be eased off. But it certainly would build up national assets.

Huge congrats. you summed up perfectly the economics problems. Just data and science based opinions.

Why would you stay in a system which is soo corrupt ?

This is a story about a countries living beyond their means where Italy is just a particularly popular example but certainly not the only one. To an extent the US, UK, France, Germany, Greece and recent editions to the Western alliance like Bulgaria and Romania. The reason is simple, the massive growth from the past century was unsustainable and we are now paying the price. The baby boom followed by massive dept meant that the economies of the West but also the iron curtain were running hot, energy prices were low, mineral and metal prices were low and investments paid off especially the Marshal plan. The problem with that is you can't just grow the population endlessly, dept also matured and had to be paid back, prices or raw materials began to increase. The reason Italy was hit worse then other countries is because they didn't import as many people and they had more dept then average. Other countries simply relied on immigrants to fuel their low payed jobs while keeping tax revenue steady to pay off dept. But as we have found out, that too work to a point, after that the social cohesion of the country goes to shit. We should watch Italy, Korea and Japan carefully because this is what is going to happen in the West in general. Do not be fooled, Italians are neither stupid nor lazy and their problems are not unique.

Nobody talks about the balance between quality and productivity, as well as efficiency. Making and selling goods from Italy to the other side of the globe is not simple because, if it were, other nations would have done it. While it may seem like a piece of cake in hindsight, the reality involves a significant price - time, resources, and sacrifice to make a living, especially without abundant natural resources. Today, Italy may not be in its prime, appearing a bit rusty and old, but perhaps this is a natural progression leading to a better tomorrow . It’s ok we don’t need to be great all in the same time .

You portray the topic quite well

As an italian this is so sad. Great video btw🙏🏼

1:55 History 2:25 Marshall plan - releasing Mafia 2:55 communism 5:10 North vs South

Over 20 years? We have been decline since 1989, with a short pause in the mid 90s. Everyone with functioning brain migrated north a decade ago only to be replaced by unskilled, criminal vagaries. And now even the once with half a brain have understood that Italy has not future.

As italian, 25 yo, something which impacts more on the stagnant economy of the country is related to the bureaucracy and the high tax evasion, which does not do anything but to increase the taxation. This is a legal barrier for firms to access the market and it does not stimulate the willingness of starting a business, fact that could contribute to explain the lack of increase in our GDP. People do not pay taxes because the public services offered do not correspond to what they should be, so people are unsatisfied and tend to evade taxation. The only solution, at the moment would be cutting off the fees to pay in percentage terms.

As an Italian engineer emigrated to Germany this video hurts 😢

The reasons for the decline of the Italian economy is much simpler: 1) Useless beaurocracy that annoys everyone; 2) Tax rates are too high; 3) Justice system is very slow; 4) People leave because the government does not want to change all those things - end of story.

That is an excellent question. And the answer is: Only one way to find out.

optimism is the real key

that is one of the things that frustrates me the most. As an Italian person myself (21 yo), I learned English and now I'm finishing a bachelors in English, just so that I could go away from Italy if I wanted to. I would really like to stay as I love the food, the people, the cities, ... but I don't really it's an environment suited for young people. The government is not doing much to solve the issues of students going away, nor to make it easier to find a job who pays you decently without working 40 hours.

Did you use an AI voice to narrate the video?

is the voice made with eleven labs?

In the old days Italians had way more children & were significantly poorer. This is a cultural issue. Regarding the economy, I’m not buying this “productivity” theory, however the West’s inability to compete with cheaper Chinese manufacturing. Blame globalisation.

Really Interesting

would have liked you to cover exactly what happened in 1970, that led to the collapse of productivity growth. i am not sure whether money spent on baby bonuses are worth it, it's not gonna push people to have kids. you didn't go into the figures of their pension liabilities, most OECD countries are facing that crunch , France most famously and lastly, I would have liked to hear some suggestions on what Italy should do. I'm sure there are think tanks publishing many papers on the topic

I mean…declining population + stable and stationary gdp is kinda fine and necessary considering moving away from a growth based system is going to be necessary

This only shows other EU countries were like ninteenth century of Argentina，which gradually lost momentum later.

Good luck Italy! Your country is so beautiful

Nice video

Whats striking me is the view that groth is the goal of everything, bu should it be ?

Regardin' natality support policies, they fall short due to the lack of nurseries. And the fact every time you have a government chage, policies change too, people do not rely on them (and that is true not just for parenthood planning but also for industrial investment)

Thanks miss Thatcher for the video

Italy's biggest problem is tax evasion. About 80 billion euros a year.

Economic investigator Frank G Melbourne Australia is still watching this very informative content cheers Frank

As Italian I can say this is all true and is sadly not the topic of political discussion, but I have to say Meloni government is not doing enough , the measures taken who are on this video are only provvisory or very light

Mate, all grat and good but there are some things that are a bit odd in the last part of the video. Next time maybe ask some more italian economists for their insights and comments

I worked in Italy last summer, it is november and I'm still waiting for my payment of september. Does not seem like a first world country

The graph shown at minute 8:43 doesn’t make sense to me? Shouldn’t it be shown the opposite way?

One of the main problems is also the fact that big italian corporations, like fendi or maserati, have all been sold to foreign owners that dont need to create more jobs in italy but would rather close manufacturing implants in italy and open them in their country (an example that can be made is stellantis) leaving tens of thousand people jobless and vastly decreasing italy economic growth, there is also the government that dont give a fuck about anything if not just sitting on their asses doing absolutely nothing to fix the economic stagnation that italy is currently going through.

Also Italy was never an enemy of the USA. It was Germany that declared war to the US on behalf of Italy as part of the Axis agreement. The Kingdom of Italy never formally declared war to the US.

old italians think you italians cannot raisea family the same way they have done cause they are missing the "spirit of sacrifice". tha is partly true, but 30 years ago most faimlies could've bought a home and raise a child with only one source of income ( usually the working father). now to have a source of income sufficiently big to pay rent/mortgage and feed 3 people you need to be in a highly skilled or management position otherwise both parents have to work full time to have the same quality of life they lived as teenagers under their parents roof. future mothers encounter the same old problems while triyng to enter the workforce ( maternity leave is undesirable for the employer). ad to the fact that due to the fact that most people prefer to take a degree rather than work an underpaid low skilled job you have the average italian entering the workforce at 22-26 and gaining economic indipendence ( those who succeed) from family and starting to think about raising their own at around 28-30.

Why are the charts lagging in the video

Could you do one for Spain please.

As an Italian I’m pissed off with all the negative .they all predict the fall of Italy. ,but it will never happen

The EU arrow pointing upwards in the graphic seems totally unrealistic to me

The Problem With Italy’s Economy: stability pact..it's the rules that make the game

I just opened a small company and i can confirm is an absolute nightmare of burocratic nonsense. But life quality is still so much better in the south

1:37 unless i am missing something this forecast seems off... China with a 63tn economy in 2030? up from 17-20tn in 2022?

The problem isn't the worker rights or regulations, which have actually diminished (what a world to live in) other countries with equal or better worker protections do perfectly fine... The problem is bureaucracy, inefficiency, corruption, lack of foresight, gerontocracy, private and public mismanegement, private and public embezzlenent, etc. Plus the fact that the government really doesn't want to work out these things for it would require upsetting their infinite election campaign... They give token help to things people think are the "blood of our economy" (such as things like food excellences or token small businesses), while doing nothing to promote the high value and high tech industries, which we do actually have, because these need the kind of workers that they don't like as citizens: people with degrees and high levels of skills, people that often don't vote for the kind of parties that get to power here, people that require the kind of things that these administrations normally dismiss as useless or "corrupted by the reds" such as higher education. On the other hand they are spineless and corrupt, incapable to use either persuasion or retaliation to keep big companies, see those cheats at Stellantis, from moving their capitals and industries to other countries (while also getting duped by the aforementioned time and time again into giving them money because... Nonsense reasons). Also Genoa and Turin haven't had any relevance in decades... Hell that's the Kingdom's old industrial triangle. Now the triangle is Milan, Venice, Bologna.

So as an Italian myself we can only survive this disaster by, investing more in the southern region, increasing the retirement age, cutting welfare money, convincing young Italians to stay in Italy, and having as many babies as we can(making polygamy legal too), take the migrants and put them on the southern region to boost and revitalize the economy there, invite foreign investment, reform our constitution will ensure more power to ruling government(=a government straight for 5 years, we badly need political stability), reduce bureaucracy, be more international student-friendly in our universities, give autonomous to some region(like sud tyrol is the best region economically and I think we should have some region like Sicily or Calabria to be autonomous too which will attract more foreign business), have the best relation with Arabs(even with Iran, at least we will have less oil cost from making relation with them, and most importantly have faith in our country and god!

The Iron curtain went through the middle of Europe, not at the Soviet border

so why has Germany a lower growth? UK too!