In these days it begins to arrive on the current account of 140 thousand Trentino pensioners. Within a few weeks, 190,000 private and public employees will benefit. This year, however, the thirteenth month will be leaner, on average by 9% according to the calculations of the Cgia Studies Office, the Artisans Association of Mestre. The reason is that more than a third of employees ended up, briefly or for a long time, in layoffs due to the Covid crisis and this lowers the value of the bonus. Instead of the usual 330-340 million euros of thirteenth after tax, 450 million gross, this year there will be about 300 million in the paycheck of the Trentino people, at least 30 million less. With the reduction in the availability of money, Christmas purchases are likely to suffer a contraction of 15%.
This year in Italy the thirteenth will arrive in the portfolios of 16 million pensioners and 18 million employees, for a total amount of 40 billion gross and 30 net, 3 billion less than the sum paid last year. The taxman, for its part, will collect over 10 billion. «Covid – explains the coordinator of the Cgia Studies Office Paolo Zabeo – unfortunately has lightened the thirteenth of many employees in the private sector. In fact, since the beginning of the emergency, at least 6.6 million workers have ended up in layoffs and many of these at zero hours. This situation has not allowed many people to accrue the monthly accrual that economically defines the bonus, thus lightening the final amount of about 100 euros for each month of indemnity received “.
«With less money available and a lot of mistrust that haunts Italian families – continues Zabeo – Christmas purchases are likely to suffer a contraction of up to 15%. If last year the total expenditure was close to 10 billion, this year it could drop to 8.5-9 billion, a reduction that risks penalizing above all the artisan shops and neighborhood shops that struggle to withstand the increasingly fierce competition of online commerce “.
«With the increase in private savings and the vertical fall in household consumption – reports the secretary Renato Mason – the country is slipping dangerously towards deflation. In fact, since last May, the consumer price index has been negative. On the surface, this may seem positive: if prices go down, consumers make money. In reality, things take on a completely different dimension: although prices are falling, families do not buy due to lower economic availability and negative expectations, the little that is sold means, for shopkeepers, increasingly limited profit margins. Unsold merchandise triggers a situation of difficulty for traders, but also for manufacturing companies which, in the face of lost sales, are forced to reduce production and, in the future, also employment ”.
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