Industrial production falls again in August. After two months in which it had taken a breather, the index fell back into negative territory. The latest Istat data show -2.4% compared to July and -2.7% compared to a year earlier. Of course, this is a particular month, characterized by closures for holidays and limited activity, but the historical series of annual variations is heavy: if you look from August 2023 onwards there are all negative signs, interrupted only last April and July. And so the alarm of consumers and merchants rises again.
The CGIL and the opposition accuse the government of describing a country that “does not exist” while the data make the reading that the S&P rating agency will give on the overall state of health of the Italian economy and the sustainability of the public finances particularly awaited. The latest rating assigned to Italy by the American evaluator was BBB+ with a stable outlook.
Meanwhile, the analysis focuses on the average of the June-August period, again in Istat data, recording a decrease in production equal to 0.6% compared to the previous three months. Stopping in August, the decline is more or less widespread across all major industry groups. Consumer goods marked -1.2% on a monthly basis and -2.3% on an annual basis. Energy does -0.6% on the month and reaches -8.6% on the year. Again in the comparison over the twelve months, among the sectors of economic activity the most significant decline is found precisely in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air (-13.5%); followed by the other manufacturing industries, repair and installation of machines and equipment (-6.4%), the wood, paper and printing industry (-2.5%). On the contrary, the greatest trend increases are for the production of pharmaceutical products (+16.1%), the manufacturing of transport vehicles (+9.9%) and the manufacturing of coke and refined petroleum products (+7.1%).
It is a framework in which voices are raised to ask for a relaunch of family consumption. The data on industrial production for August, «although to be read with caution given the particularity of the month, is a further sign of the difficulties of our economy in emerging from the stalemate phase we are going through», comments Confcommercio. For the CGIL, “the government’s substantial inability to deal with the biggest production crisis since the post-war period is now clear” and also “the pattern is clear: from tomorrow Minister Urso and the Prime Minister will return to talk about a thriving country and industrial policies that simply do not exist”. Codacons speaks of “a collapse” which erases “the glimmer of light seen in July”, while the industry is also weighed down by the ax of US duties which could “exacerbate” the 2025 data.