An increase of four decimal places compared to the previous month (after two consecutive drops) and a drop of 1.4% on an annual basis. Without infamy and without praise the July figure for Italian manufacturing, whose production shows signs of difficulty without however showing a sharp slowdown. What is certain is that the observation of the output recorded by Istat highlights another “film” compared to what is seen on the turnover side.
If the increase in revenues, which for months has been in double-digit progress, largely depends on the inflationary tensions that are unloaded on the price lists, in production the measurement is neutral with respect to prices, we look at the quantities, the volumes produced. In fact, they present a decidedly less dynamic trend.
What is certainly weighing is the surge in energy prices, which forces many companies to review production cycles, slowing down output when costs become unrealistic. As has happened, for example, to numerous foundries, which for the first time in their history have decided to anticipate their holidays in July to take advantage of less tense gas and electricity prices in August, a forecast that has unfortunately been denied by reality. Stop, which in fact contributed to slowing down the metallurgy figure, the worst sector among those monitored by Istat.
Thus, adding the latest survey, on the average for the May-July period, the level of production decreased by 1.6% compared to the previous three months. Among the sectors of economic activity that recorded positive trend variations, the
manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products (+ 15.0%), the production of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations (+ 3.3%) and the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air (+ 2.8% ). The largest decreases are recorded in metallurgy and manufacturing of metal products (-8.1%), in the manufacture of rubber and plastic materials (-6.8%) and in the manufacture of chemical products (-3.8% ).
Signs of slowdown visible in any case also elsewhere in the latest surveys, for example in the labor market. With Istat recording 22 thousand fewer employees in July than in the previous month, while in parallel, INPS recorded a jump of over 45 points for the Extraordinary Fund in the first seven months of the year.