The economic scenario “in itself critical and very uncertain” has become further complicated with the government crisis, the dissolution of Parliament and the early calling of new political elections, which for a large part of the second half of 2022 will limit the action of Government “and” structural and economic criticalities define a framework in which it is necessary to act with diversified interventions, but equally effective and above all dedicated to supporting the competitiveness of businesses, the real engine for the recovery of the country “.
This is what the 2022 SME Regional Report, produced by Confindustria and Cerved, in collaboration with Unicredit and Gruppo 24 Ore has highlighted, according to which “to date, the legislator has intervened with measures that are not always sufficient to adequately contain the effects of the health crisis in various productive sectors and to support their needs for liquidity and investment planning and, at the same time, did not envisage structural measures, which would constitute lasting support for investments, recovery and growth ».
The study takes into account the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the persistence of price increases on the raw materials market and analyzes the exposure of Italian SMEs to climate, environmental and transition risks in the various regions. The report analyzes the trends and prospects of 160 thousand Italian companies which – employing between 10 and 249 employees and with a turnover of between 2 and 50 million euros, fall within the European definition of small and medium-sized enterprises, and generate value total added amount of 204 billion euros.
16 thousand SMEs exposed to climate and transition risks
The SME Regional Report 2022 highlights the impact of “climate, environmental and transition risks”, warning that “the stability of the system is in the balance”. “On an overall level – notes the document -, the SMEs that operate in sectors at high or very high transition risk are just over 16 thousand (10.6% of the total), employ 478 thousand workers (11.0 %) and have an exposure to the credit system of over 44 billion (17.1%) ».
With war and energy crisis at risk, recovery 2022-23
The geopolitical, economic and commercial tensions associated with the conflict in Ukraine (sanctions, trade uncertainty, trade restrictions) are being transmitted to the production system through a series of effects. And the recovery process of Italian SMEs could slow down over the next two years. After the decrease in risk observed in 2021, in fact, the share of SMEs at risk starts to rise again.