Italian industry started 2024 with a decline of 3.4%

Yesterday computers and electronics; today mainly petroleum and energy products.
The sectors that drive industrial production in Italy are changing and those that were growing in January 2020, shortly before the crisis triggered by the pandemic, are no longer what they are today.
Especially four years ago they were much more numerous, as certified by the estimates released by the latest ISTAT note.
In January 2024 the Institute detected a decline in industrial production in Italy of 1.2% compared to December 2023 and of 3.4% compared to January last year.
A decline that must cause some concern, also because it mainly concerns consumer goods (-5.4%) and which usually reveals a low spending capacity and uncertain expectations for the future on the part of consumers.
In addition to the decline, it should be noted that the slowdown affects almost all the main production sectors: 13 out of 16 to be precise.
In fact, only the production of coke and petroleum products grew compared to 2023 (+2% on annual basis), the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air (+1.1%) and the food, beverage and tobacco industries (+0.6%).
All the rest of production, also represented by key sectors, is decreasing.
We are talking about the wood, paper and printing industry (-8%), computer and electronics manufacturing (-7.2%), plastic rubber (-6.2%) and in particular basic and prepared pharmaceutical products , which suffered the largest decline compared to 2023 (-15.2%).
Comparing today's situation with that of four years ago, evident differences emerge.
In January 2020, Italian industrial production was essentially at the same level as that of the previous year (-0.1% compared to the same month in 2019).
But above all he saw growth in 8 out of 16 sectors; sectors which today, however, are almost all in difficulty.
At the beginning of 2020, the computer and electronics manufacturing sector recorded an annual growth of 11.4%, pharmaceutical products 3.5% and the manufacturing of transport equipment 1.1%.
Among the sectors in decline four years ago, however, were those of energy supply and production of coke and refined petroleum products, which today are the only ones growing.
The recent negative results on industrial production also seem to be confirmed by qualitative surveys by Istat, which highlights declining business confidence indices in numerous sectors: especially for manufacturing companies, which report drops in orders and current production, as well as little confidence for the next few months.
The certification of the production decline also comes at a complicated time for the government, grappling with long-term industrial crises on multiple fronts.
On the one hand there is the age-old issue of the former Ilva of Taranto, after the break with the ArcelorMittal group; on the other, the ambitious goal of producing one million Stellantis vehicles, combined with the hypothesis of attracting a new automotive manufacturer to Italy.
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