Bonomi, ‘defending industry, we need a robust and systematic response’

“Any close resolution of the conflict would have the effect of mitigating the impacts but not of eliminating them. And this is why we continue to believe that the very short-term approach followed by the government so far is insufficient. We need a more robust, systemic and above all lasting “. This is what the president of Confindustria Carlo Bonomi underlines in a hearing on the Def at the joint budget commissions of the Chamber and Senate. “The macroeconomic picture of the Def which outlines a tendential growth of GDP at 2.9% in 2022 based on a contraction of 0.5% in the first quarter, a recovery in the second and during the summer months, a return to growth at a rapid pace supported, appears optimistic and does not seem to grasp the extraordinary difficulties of the current situation “, continues the president of the industrialists. “From our survey carried out on a sample of associated companies, it emerges that over 16% of companies have already reduced production. And over 1/3 indicate that they can only continue for 3 months without substantial suspensions. So in two and a half months, almost 1 in 2 companies will have reduced production “, warns Bonomi. The economic scenario, he explains,” is dominated by the extreme tensions and uncertainties generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war is grafted onto a situation already made difficult by the persistence of the pandemic, upward pressure on the prices of various commodities, from the procurement of raw materials and materials and bottlenecks in some global supply chains. For Italy, Russian gas accounts for 38% of consumption. – he continues – the costs of businesses are increasing with an increase in the Italian energy bill which, at current prices, would be 5.7 billion on a monthly basis, 68 billion on an annual basis “. “Companies have so far largely absorbed these cost increases in their margins, even canceling them in some cases. The eroded margins explain why core inflation in Italy is the lowest in Europe (1.7% in March ) “he observes.