2S
after six consecutive years of recession

South of Italy in ’catastrophic decline’ after recession

By Nick Squires, The Telegraph 30 Oct 2014
Saturday 8 November 2014

The sandy beaches, Baroque towns and vineyards of southern Italy have made it popular with British holiday makers and second-home owners for decades, but a new study has warned the region is undergoing catastrophic demographic and industrial decline.

The decline of the "Mezzogiorno", the southern regions, has been under way for years, but the report by an economic think tank revealed that its levels of unemployment, industrial contraction and population loss have dramatically worsened after six consecutive years of recession.

For the first time since the First World War, the number of people dying in the southern half of Italy has surpassed the number of babies being born, according to the report by Svimez, the Association for the Industrial Development of the Mezzogiorno.
The last time that happened was in 1918 when Italy, like the rest of Europe, was ravaged by the Spanish influenza epidemic, which preyed on people weakened by years of wartime deprivation.

If the trend continues, the south risks losing more than four million people in the next half century, emptying towns and cities and leaving much of the countryside bereft of people. Each year the equivalent of an entire town’s population emigrates from the sun-baked region of olive groves, volcanoes and stunning coastal scenery, seeking jobs either in Italy’s wealthy north or overseas, including Britain, the association said.
Last year, 116,000 decided to pack their bags and look for better opportunities elsewhere.

Despite boasting attractions such as Pompeii, the Amalfi coast and the ancient Greek temples of Sicily, the south is on the precipice of "a demographic upheaval, a tsunami of unforeseeable consequences in which it is destined to lose 4.2 million people in the next 50 years," the report warned.

The demographic "desertification" of the south may not be evident to foreign visitors who admire the Norman architecture of Palermo, the snow-covered flanks of Mt Etna or the Baroque splendours of Lecce in Puglia.

But it is a grinding reality for the region’s inhabitants and evidence of a growing wealth disparity between Italy’s north and south.

Investment has collapsed, infrastructure is a shambles and GDP per capita is in free fall.

Since the recession began to bite in 2008 there has been a seven per cent increase in the number of southern households who are unable to pay the rent or eat meat or fish on a regular basis.

In the same period, 583,000 southerners have lost their jobs.

Calabria is worst off, followed by Sicily and Campania – all regions which are also in the grip of Italy’s various mafia organisations.
In Calabria, the average per capital annual income is just 16,000 euros (£12,600) – less than half the average for the rich northern regions of Valle d’Aosta, Trentino-South Tyrol and Lombardy. The figures for Puglia, Sicily and Campania are little better.

In 2013 alone, 282,000 jobs were lost across the south, which is roughly delineated as the part of Italy that lies south of Lazio, the region that includes Rome.
The Mezzogiorno had been "abandoned to its chronic illnesses without any therapy," one national newspaper commented.

The alarming report showed that the government had to do more to lift the south out of poverty, said Maria Carmela Lanzetta, the minister for regional affairs.
Funds from the EU needed to be put to better use because without the south, Italy as a whole would not be able to climb out of recession, she said.
"The south is a warning sign for the overall malaise of Italy," Renzo Arbore, one of the south’s best known television personalities, told La Stampa newspaper.
"Families used to have four or five children but kids cost money. The best brains are emigrating – they’re all off to northern Europe."

There were exceptions to the dismal picture, said the entertainer, including the islands of Capri and Ischia in the Gulf of Naples, Taormina in eastern Sicily, known for its annual film festival, and Puglia, which has been much hyped as "the new Tuscany".


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