In 2024, the industrial production In Italy he recorded a decrease in 3.5% compared to the previous year, according to data provided by Istat. Only the energy sectors (+1.1%) and food, drinks and tobacco (+1.8%) have achieved positive results. On the contrary, production has significantly decreased in the textile sectors (-10.5%) and in the manufacture of means of transport (-11.3%).
December data
The December ISTAT data highlight an overall decline, with a 7.1% decline On an annual basis (only during the Covid period there had been a worst figure) and a 3.1% reduction compared to the previous month. With this scenario, industrial production marks 23 consecutive months of tendential decline, a period of almost two years of difficulty culminating in the December budget. The result for 2024 is far from positive, with an estimated loss of 42 billion euros for the manufacture and an average contraction of 3.5% in production, which marks the second consecutive annual background after -2% in 2023 .
Industrial production is a crucial indicator, since it represents about a fifth of the Italian GDP, which measures the size of the national economy. However, he has been in a strong crisis for some time.
What is saved and what doesn’t
In December, the only sectors that mark a tendential increase are the extractive activitywith an increase of 17.4%, and the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air, which grows by 5.0%.
Two sectors have long been weighed on the average: particularly: car And fashionwhich are confirmed the most negative. As for the automotive sector, the production is almost halved (-43%), a predictable result given the wide use of layoffs by the Stellantis group. In the textile-clothing sector, the flexion exceeds 18%, while metallurgy records a double-digit drop, with a reduction also for machinery and wood-articles, which retreat by over 9%.
In the panorama of the manufacture, no positive data emerges on an annual basis: only the electricity and extractive activities sector have seen production growth in December. Looking at the whole of 2024, the only sector that highlights a positive trend is the food.
Codacons: “2024 black year for industry”
2024 will be remembered as the black year of the Italian industry, with industrial production that records consistent drops in all sectors by recording a particularly negative performance. This is stated by Codacons, commenting on the data released today by Istat.
Net of the energy sector, all the main industrial groupings recorded a marked reduction in 2024, confirming the bad health of the Italian industry – explains Codacons – to arouse particular concern is the trend of consumer goods Which, despite the Christmas effect, collapse heavily in December, and have recorded an average contraction of -3.3% with -4.8% for durable goods during the year.
“To weigh on these numbers the crisis of consumption that is recorded in Italy, aggravated by a trend in retail prices still growing after the strong inflation recorded in the two-year period 2022-2023 and which has engraved on the expenditure capacity of the Italians-says the President Carlo Rienzi – The Government, for now, remains to watch, while truly effective interventions would be needed to bring down the retail prices, calm the energy bills and support incomes and purchasing skills of the families”.
