The three alarms – ilGiornale.it

If three clues prove it, in these mid-autumn days we run the risk of counting not one, but many proofs that the engine of the dragon car is no longer running at full throttle. We are talking about economics. Which is the figure on which the government’s action is most measured. Well, yesterday alone several alarms sounded, ideally noisy like those that leave during the night from shops or apartments. First alarm: the Milan stock exchange, which lost more than 1.1% due to growing infections, making it the worst list in Europe. Second: in the same hours the president of the German central bank, Jens Weidmann, alerted the market to an imminent tightening of interest rates. Third siren, that of the Bank of Italy, which warns: if growth loses momentum, Italy would find itself the most vulnerable country. But yesterday’s alarms sound within a framework where there are three threatening issues: that of inflation, a phenomenon that we thought we had forgotten as an extinct disease, but that the crisis of post-pandemic globalization first brought back to life, and then shipped to our homes through the prices of basic consumer products, more expensive than a year ago in the order of 3%. Then there is the issue of taxes, with the reactivation of tax bills affecting millions of families and small businesses. And finally that of work, with the misalignment between those who look for it in vain, and those who cannot find specialized workers.

The symphony of alarms leads in only one direction: slowing growth. With the risk that the extraordinary Italian 2021 (with its + 6.2% of GDP) will be followed by a two-year period that pushes us back to the bottom of the European ranking. To avert this misfortune, the government focuses on the advancement of the NRP, the plan to spend 200 billion European funds between now and 2027. But this is the latest of the great alarms of these days, because the signs are multiplying that the PNRR is taking place. running aground on the territory due to the severe administrative capacity deficit. The resumption of infections only adds anxiety and fear that could soon reverse the signs of Italians’ expectations, today still aimed at beauty.

Faced with variables beyond its control, there is no recipe for government action. But certainly, removing any uncertainty about the duration would help to restore strength to its action. And now it would be needed at least as much as a year ago.

–