The demographic winter continues. For the first time since the unification of Italy, births were, in 2022, less than 400 thousand, to be exact 393 thousand, while the number of deaths was high, 713 thousand. It is one of the most striking data of the Annual report 2023. The situation in the country, presented by Istat to Montecitorio.
Since 2008, the relative peak year of the birth rate, births have fallen by a third. From 1.27 children on average per woman in 2019, this fell to 1.24 in 2022. In the coming years, aging is destined to worsen, with negative effects on the GDP growth rate for the head.
Future conditioned by inflation
The Report highlights that, in 2022, new critical elements emerged, after the end of the state of national health emergency. First of all, the increase in energy and raw material prices, triggered by the conflict in Ukraine, which has conditioned the evolution of the economy, with significant increases in production costs for businesses and consumer prices for families . Despite the lessening of the most critical phase of the energy crisis, in the first quarter of 2023, the near future will be conditioned by the trend of inflation which will condition the evolution of consumption and real wages. But there are favorable signs. In 2022, the recovery phase of the production activity continued. In 2022, Italy recorded GDP growth of 3.7 per cent lower, among the major economies, only than that of Spain.
Employment growth
Reassuring data comes from the labor market, with an increase in the employed and a decrease in the unemployed and inactive. During 2022, the number of employed people grew by 2.4 per cent, with an increase of 545,000 units, recording a much higher growth than that observed the previous year, when the increase was 0.7 per cent. one hundred, equal to 167 thousand units. “In May of this year, the employed numbered 23 million 471 thousand, which surpassed that of the spring of 2008,” he said. Francesco Maria Chelli, Istat president. “Our forecasts for this year are for GDP growth of 1.2 percent and, in 2024, 1.1 percent.”