In the South, wealth increases, but Milan remains first. Unioncamere, only 22 provinces beyond pre-covid
Only 22 provinces out of 107 have left the crisis caused by Covid behind in 2021, exceeding the wealth produced in 2019 at current values, more than half of which are in Campania and Sicily. Top growth in added value is recorded in Enna +2,9%, against the national average of -1,2%. But Milan with 49.332 euros per head confirms its first place for income produced per capita.
This is what emerges from the analysis carried out by the Tagliacarne Study Centre and Unioncamere on the provincial added value of 2021 and comparisons with 2019, one of the traditional activities of measuring the economy of the territories carried out by the chamber of commerce system.
Between 2021 and 2019, recovery difficulties were particularly evident in all provinces bordering the Adriatic Sea (-1,8%), Tuscany (-2,4%), and the Tri-Veneto region (-2,3%). Thanks to government support measures, construction in particular recorded the highest increases in value added (+12,6%), with peaks exceeding 30% in Umbria and much of Sicily. Manufacturing also grew, and although only accounting for 2%, it contributed significantly to the recovery given its impact on the economy.
The services sector, on the other hand, is struggling the most (-2,7%), weighed down by the difficult recovery in tourism-related activities (-27,2%), with negative impacts especially on metropolitan cities. "Covid has reshuffled the country's productive geography. Indeed, we are seeing a crisis in the traditional Adriatic axis of development and the revitalization of the Tyrrhenian one, a differentiation in growth phenomena in Southern Italy, difficulties in several areas of the Triveneto region, and the strengthening of the province's performance compared to that of the large metropolitan centers," emphasizes Andrea Prete, President of Unioncamere.
"If the provinces with the highest industrial density have shown greater resistance than the others - explains - However, the fact remains that this dynamism was not enough to restore pre-pandemic levels across the country."
Even in the wake of government measures, the Unioncamere study finds, the construction sector recovered its pre-Covid performance more quickly (+12,6%).
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The recovery is driven primarily by the Northwest (+2,7%) and the Islands (+2,3%), and to a lesser extent by the Center (+1,8%) and the Northeast (1,5%). The South, on the other hand, closes on par, but with significant heterogeneity across the various regions: from strong performances in Matera (+11,9%) to poor performances in Chieti (-7,1%) and, more generally, across Abruzzo.
The service sector is missing the target of recovering to pre-pandemic levels, losing 2,9% of added value between 2021 and 2019. The pace of recovery is being slowed by the difficulty in the tourism sector, which is still a quarter below pre-Covid levels. Artistic and creative activities (-25,0%) and business support activities (-11,8%) are also still significantly lagging. These two sectors are centered in large cities like Milan and Rome, which have lost 3,1% and 2,1%, respectively.
Campania stands out for the positive results achieved, with Avellino (+2,7%), Benevento (+1,8%), Caserta (+1,7%) and Salerno (0,8%). In the comparison between 2021 and 2019, the territories characterized by a modest entrepreneurial size in terms of number of employees are the ones that have come closest to the pre-Covid added value (-0,6%), compared to those where companies are on average larger (-1,6%). The latter were in fact the most affected by the pandemic crisis in 2020 (-7,6% versus -6,0% of the provinces with on average smaller companies).
And the strong rebound in 2021 of the provinces with a larger company size (+6,5% compared to 2020 against 5,7% of the others), has not yet managed to compensate for the serious losses suffered. Enna's added value soars (+2,9%), but Milan remains at the top for per capita income.
Enna recorded the greatest increases in added value produced between 2021 and 2019 (+2,9%), followed by Avellino (+2,7%), Benevento, Caserta, and Ragusa (+2,2% for all three provinces). However, Milan and Bolzano remain the top two in terms of income per capita, at €49.332 and €40.817, respectively, while Bologna (€37.276) displaces Florence (€37.237) from third place.
Terni is the province that has climbed the most positions in the per capita value added rankings, moving from 70th to 62nd. Avellino and Lecco also made gains, moving up four places to 86th and 27th, respectively.
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