The inflation boom is holding back Sardinia's economic recovery and forecasts for 2023 are negative.
Last year the island closed 2022 with a GDP of +2.9 percent but growth for these 12 months could slow down and nail the GDP to -0.2 percent.
Conditions which, for Confartigianato Sardegna, are mainly due to the climate of uncertainty created by inflation and the international situation due to the conflict in Ukraine.
«Although the regional economy is closing with a very positive performance, showing high reactivity and good resilience, despite the negative moment due to the pandemic and the international energy crisis - explain Maria Amelia Lai and Daniele Serra, president and secretary of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna - on the contrary, the inflation data for 2023 are worrying: we must absolutely avoid this, possible, very hard blow to the regional economy at all costs: we cannot afford it ».
“ We need to support local businesses, especially artisan ones and small businesses – they add – also allowing citizens to recover their spending power to cope, thus, with the moment of emergency linked to the increase in consumer prices. The extent of the energy crisis and the commitments undertaken by the Government in terms of reforms now give hope for an overall rationalization approach. Resources can, indeed, must be recovered, eliminating waste, inefficiencies, position gains and absurd imbalances».
Inflation is among the first elements to end up under accusation: in November 2022 prices grew in Sardinia by 13.1% on 2021 . The national average is 11.8% and is exceeded in eight regions, namely Sicily (14.3%), Liguria (13.7%), Sardinia (13.6%), Abruzzo (12.9%), Umbria (12.5%), Puglia (12.5%), Emilia-Romagna (12.4%) and Tuscany (12.0%). And then there is the cost of energy: the consumer prices of electricity, gas and other fuels, excluding fuel for transport, have more than doubled, marking +135.9% in November for Sardinia.
«Especially on the cost of energy, for a long time now, we have been asking and hoping for a revision aimed at rebalancing the tax burden on the different dimensions of entrepreneurs-users - continue Lai and Serra - for this it is necessary, first of all, to definitively eliminate system charges from business electricity bills. The zeroing that took place in 2022 as a result of the emergency measures demonstrates that it is a possible operation and that it must be made structural. It is unthinkable to ask an entrepreneur who has gone from a 7,000-euro monthly bill in 2021 to 14,000 in 2022 to add, starting this year, around 2,000 euros a month for the general costs of the electricity system».
Confartigianato Sardegna has presented some proposals on corporate energy efficiency to support companies in the installation of energy production plants from renewable sources and to intervene on the ecological transition and on the reduction of consumption and costs, requesting an intervention of 50 million EUR.
(Unioneonline/ss)