(Finance) – It almost went unnoticed in an intense and convulsive day, in which attention was still catalyzed by the war events across the border and by the disarming numbers of victims at work, but the news of a real collapse of purchasing powersignal of a real impoverishment of families Italians, did not cause much fanfare. Yet it is the most obvious sign of one socio-economic crisis which also risks nullifying the positive effects of the PNRR.
In publishing the data of contractual wageswhich grew by a modest 0.7% in one year, Istat warned that, in 2022, the index will grow on average by 0.8% and the purchasing power, considering the inflationary dynamics, will suffer a drop of five percentage points. And how could it be otherwise with a labor market struggling to recover from the shock of the pandemic, with inflation reaching 6.2%, a rising shopping cart and a cost of bills that becomes almost prohibitive? We talked about it with the National Consumers Unionasking what this distortion is due to and how it can be corrected.
“Unfortunately every time there is a crisis the first thing that jump and the renewal contractual. On the occasion of the recession that began in September 2008, we have had proof of this, reaching embarrassing records, “he explains Mauro AntonelliHead ofUNC Research Departmentadding “so, as the cost of living takes off, the salaries remain at stake with devastating effects on purchasing power and, consequently, on consumption. No other policies can be made on the supply side, otherwise there will be negative repercussions on demand “.
The inadequacy of wages also calls into question the timing of renewals contractual. How to speed up the timing of the renewal? For the UNC one could build on the experiences of the 1970s and “restore a automatic wage adjustment mechanism, such as the sliding scale to programmed inflation. “” Between returning to the inflationary spirals that preceded the referendum on the escalator and impoverishing the middle class by blocking wages and pensions, while tariffs and the cost of living rise, there is a middle ground “, Antonelli points out.
Addressing the other thorny issue of the dear bills he was born in dear fueli, which help keep household budgets under pressure, the UNC believes the government should “allocate more money” and “don’t just extend the interventions”. “We need structural interventions that have not been made – underlines the Studies Office -. Purely by way of example, we ask ourselves what the Government and Arera ac are waiting for.to tell the Single Buyer to buy not only on spot markets but also with medium-long term contracts. We are not talking about what the EU could do and has not yet done, how to review the auction mechanism for CO2 emission permits “.
With consumption stagnating, the economy does not grow. And indeed Istat today confirmed a minus sign for GDPa -0.2% that leaves a bad taste in the mouth and must also be greeted with a sigh of relief, since the worst was already feared and after Minister Franco had spoken of a fall into recession in 2022. What to expect? For the UNC Research Department “nothing good without a change in government policy “.
“Recession that could trigger anyway due to the war in Ukraine – underlines Antonelli – but that it can be mitigated if the spending power of families is safeguarded. We recall that household consumption accounts for 60% of GDP “.