Pandemic and public aid: Italy first in Europe

Occasionally good news and a decidedly positive record : the European record of aid goes to Italy public during the pandemic . The numbers of the “Map of State aid on bank loans developed by Fabi put it in black and white. In total , 311 billion euros, divided as follows: approximately 60 billion of moratoriums still active, against 500,000 suspensions granted, three million requests for loans presented, more than 220 billions of loans guaranteed by Mediocredito Centrale and 31 billions of loans disbursed through SACE.

The numbers, updated as of January 6, also illustrate the resilience of the Italian production system, induced by the parachute represented by the measures introduced by the State starting from spring 2020, to resist the most acute economic crisis of the last 20 years, caused by Covid , and govern the uncertainty of the present.

Two years after the start of the pandemic, Fabi notes, “the balance of guaranteed loans shows dizzying figures because if the impact of the virus on the Italian economy was profound and extensive, the measures activated by the government were equally valid “, which” allowed lle tricolor companies to resist the impact of the pandemic and to govern uncertainty ”. Official statistics reported in the study by the banking union show that in the European panorama, “Italy – together with Spain – not only stands out for the percentage of recourse to loans backed by public guarantees (about 5% of the outstanding banking system ), but also boasts the primacy of the highest coverage ratio with an average 85% compared to Spain and Germany (80%) and France (55 %) “.

However, a picture emerges from the overall geography of the concessions ” once again at two speeds given that more than 50% of the overall operations were presented in the regions with the largest number of companies and workers in the national territory and which, probably, are have also been hit to a greater extent by the crisis “.

The mapping of and the 250 billion in aid tells that the largest share went to the Northern regions (Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia- Romagna), followed by those of the Center such as Lazio, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Umbria and Marche. The fabric of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises, which is concentrated in Southern Italy, although it has instead received only 18.7% of total funding, is the one that boasts the record – after the first five in the North – for amounts up to 30,000 euros. However, it is still penalized in the category of loans over 30 thousand, where the South collects only 17.6% of total aid resources, compared to 52.3% in the northern area of ​​Italy and 24.2% of the North Central District.

If the loans have been destined for all economic activities on the Italian territory , the most representative size class was that of loans for an amount exceeding 30,000 euros which attracted almost 90% of the total resources used. The residual 10% share, on the other hand, went to transactions for an amount of less than € 30,000.