Bankitalia, Ligurian economy growing by only 0.5 per cent

Economic activity in mild growth but exports in sharp decline for Liguria in 2024. It is a chiaroscuro picture offered by the data on the region collected by the Bank of Italy. GDP increased by 0.5%, a value slightly lower than the Italian comparison figure and slowing down compared to 2023 (1.7%).

"We find ourselves," explained the director of Bankitalia's Genoa office, Raffaella Di Donato, "in a general context of weak global demand, geopolitical and trade tensions that make the situation rather uncertain and do not allow us to make any forecasts for the near future. The outlook can only be reasonably cautious. The overall growth, at regional level, for this year was rather weak, slowing down compared to the previous year and lower than in the rest of the country, with different trends depending on the sector'.

In industry in the narrow sense, reads the report, illustrated by Davide Revelli of the Analysis and Research Division, 'production (approximated by the number of hours worked) rose marginally; sales and investment expenditure, in real terms, stabilised. Exports, on the other hand, fell sharply (almost -25%), mainly due to the most erratic components, namely shipbuilding and oil products. Exposure to the US market, moreover, has been very volatile over the last decade: it was 9% in 2024 (just below the national average of around 10%), while in 2014 it was 4% and in 2023 it peaked at 32%'. This trend, however, according to Revelli, is also very often driven by the sale of ships and boats, which is physiologically unstable, and the equally unstable sale of oil.

The construction sector, the study points out, "slowed down (the number of hours worked declared to the Building Funds increased by 3.2 per cent; 7.8 in 2023), also reflecting the lesser use of tax benefits related to building renovation work; work on major infrastructure works continued to support the sector. House purchases and sales decreased slightly (-0.4%), despite the recovery observed in the second half of the year, against a moderate increase in prices; transactions referring to commercial properties also decreased.

As for tourist presences, these are up slightly (0.4%), but only in the foreign component. While passengers are down (-6.1%), especially cruise passengers. A phenomenon, said Revelli, also due to 'ongoing works on the quays of Genoa and La Spezia, which have limited the berthing of cruise ships. Port traffic, on the other hand, picked up slightly, at +0.8% (they were at -4% in 2023), with the most dynamic container segment, at +4.6%; the latter figure was achieved thanks to an increase in transhipment traffic at Savona, Genoa, and La Spezia.