Italy’s Productivity Problems in Three Charts

As expected, real Italian productivity has been largely stagnant over the past 20 years. According to the latest data from EurostatIn 2023, Italian productivity was 100.5, while in 2003 it was 98. Thus, in twenty years, it has grown by only 2.5 points. Eurostat data go back to 1995 and show that productivity in Italy grew mostly until 2001, then stabilizing at around 100. In the last four years, Italian productivity has fallen: in 2020 it reached 103.9, in 2021 it rose to 102.1, in 2022 to 102.1. 101.9 until it fell below 101 last year. However, this decline must take into account the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the world of work in the two-year period between 2020 and 2022.

Italy is not the only country to have suffered from stagnant productivity in recent years. In 2023, France’s productivity index was 100.1, matching 2015. Spain fared slightly better, with an index of 103.1, as did Germany, with 106.1. On average, the productivity index for the entire European Union is 105.6.