(Finance) – The tertiary sector also restarts in Italy. After the stop imposed byl Covid19, in 2021 the service sector it recorded a growth of + 4.5% on the previous year, driven by the performance of market services (+ 6.9%). A slower restart of industry (+ 13.3%) and construction (+ 21.3%) is still insufficient to allow the service sector the recovery: the turnover of services it is in fact still 4% below the levels reached in 2019, the last year before the pandemic. And the recovery could also escape in 2022, between rising energy costs, inflation and uncertainty linked to the resumption of infections which affects consumer confidence. The data for the first three months seem to confirm the difficulties: between January and March the purchasing power of Italian families grew by only 0.3% against an increase in gross disposable income of 2.6% compared to the previous quarter.
This is what emerges from the first edition ofTertiary Observatory set up by AssoTerziario Confesercenti with the aim of monitoring the state of health of the Italian Tertiary Sector.
The tertiary sector in Italy and in Europe – As a whole, the tertiary sector is today worth the 73% of the Italian GDP, 53.2% if we only consider market services. Data that underline the delay in the outsourcing of our economy compared to the rest of the OECD economies. In the US, in fact, the tertiary sector weighs seven points more on their domestic product (80%), the same level as France; in Spain it accounts for 77%. Even limiting itself to market services, the impact on the Italian economy appears slightly behind the Eurozone average (53.2% against 54%). A growing gap even before the pandemic: from 2000 to 2019, the market component of the Italian service sector accumulated a significant delay in the growth of added value: + 0.7% average per year, while, in the same period, the growth rate of private services observed in the Eurozone was more than double (1.7% annual average) and exceeded the 2.1% annual average in the case of France and the 2.6% annual average in the case of Spain.
2020 – A growth path however abruptly interrupted by the pandemic in 2020: the impact of the Covid crisis has in fact affected all activities, but mainly those of services, and in particular the tourism sector and that of retail trade, with the exclusion of food and consumer goods, have suffered enormous losses. Overall, in 2020 the Italian service sector suffered a reduction in turnover of -8.5%, even stronger (-11.6%) for market services. In particular, accommodation and catering services fell (-41.2% compared to 2019) and artistic, entertainment and entertainment activities (-27.7%). Also in sharp decline transport and warehousing (-18.9%), professional activities (-10.5%), real estate (-9.4%) and trade (-8%). On the other hand, financial and insurance activities resist (with a loss reduced to -0.4%), while information and communication services, favored by smart working and restrictions, recorded growth of + 1.7%).
2021 – To start again, in 2021, they were mainly accommodation and restaurants, which recorded a growth in turnover of + 21% after the collapse of the previous year. Transport (+ 12.9%) and trade (+ 7.9%) also did well, although no branch of the tertiary sector has yet managed to recover pre-pandemic levels, with the exception of information and communication services, which continue to grow (+ 3.7% on 2020), while financial and insurance services still reduce turnover (-0.5%).
Work – The pandemic has also had a heavy impact on employment in the tertiary sector: at the end of 2021 there are still 800 thousand work units to recover the level of 2019. 95% of the overall employment gap of all sectors compared to the pre-pandemic, is represented by services market. More in detail, in terms of total work units, the Tertiary sector shows the greatest contraction compared to the primary sector which passes the pandemic period almost unscathed, surpassing in 2021 the employees registered in 2019 and the industrial sector which records a slight decline in part recovered already in 2021. In the tertiary sector, the sharpest contractions are affected by Accommodation and catering (-34.3% in 2020, and a slight recovery of 11.9% in 2021) and Non-food retail trade (-11.1% in 2020 , only + 7.4% in 2021).
“The tertiary sector has restarted, albeit unfortunately with a slower pace than expected. From the photograph taken by our Observatory, however, a sector also emerges that is engaged in a phase of strong transformation, due to the digital and ecological transition, but also to the change in consumer spending habits “, he explains. Nico Gronchi, President of AssoTerziario and Deputy National Vice President of the National Confesercenti. “It is a different world than before: new products are also sold but second-hand ones are becoming increasingly popular, services are moving away from the street towards online platforms, polarizing entire segments of activity around the big digital players. In general, it is a process that must be guided: we need to invest in order to give companies in the service sector the tools to successfully intercept change, favoring the adoption of increasingly eco-sustainable business models and new technologies. Without underestimating the challenges of the short term. In fact, we fear that the second part of 2022, between inflation, recovery of infections and the physiological slowdown in tourism, could create new obstacles to the business system, further stopping the recovery “.