Businesses are returning to growth. Record investment in 2025
Analysis of 1,700 companies with over 500 employees. Revenue has risen by 39.6 per cent over the past ten years. Last year saw a 0.5 per cent recovery following two years of decline
Key points
Revenues for Italian companies are set to grow again in 2025, following two years of slowdown, thanks above all to the boost from exports and the propensity to invest which, despite the difficulties and uncertainties experienced over the last ten years – from the pandemic to wars and trade tensions – have never waned and reached a record figure of 35 billion euros last year.
The annual survey carried out by Mediobanca’s Research Department on the financial statements of the 1,700 largest Italian industrial and service sector companies (which includes almost all companies with over 500 employees and 12.3 per cent of medium-sized manufacturing firms) confirms the competitiveness of the Italian business sector, particularly that of medium-sized and medium-to-large enterprises, and its ability to respond to market challenges, albeit with some distinctions – some of them marked – depending on the type of company and the sector in which they operate.
Revenue growth
The combined turnover of the 1,700 companies (which account for 43 per cent of the industry’s total turnover and 48 per cent of the manufacturing sector’s) actually rose last year by 0.5 per cent compared with 2024, following two years of significant decline, with a fall of 6.2 per cent in 2023 and 3 per cent in 2024. The recovery, as explained by Mediobanca analysts, was driven primarily by exports, which rose by 3.3 per cent, offsetting the weakness of the domestic market, which contracted by 1 per cent. Growth was even more robust when considering manufacturing companies alone, whose revenues rose by 1.7 per cent overall last year, with the domestic market also holding up well (+0.3 per cent).
The most interesting aspect of the ‘Cumulative Data’ survey is that it examines the performance of the sample companies over a decade, from 2016 to 2025, thereby providing a snapshot of the state of health of our economy in the medium to long term. Over the period under review, the nominal turnover of the 1,700 companies increased by 39.6 per cent, whilst exports and sales on the Italian market grew by 45.6 per cent and 36.4 per cent respectively. Once again, the manufacturing sector recorded the best performance, with a 41.3 per cent increase in turnover over the decade, thanks to a 46 per cent rise in international markets and a 36.5 per cent rise in the domestic market. In particular, it is the sectors characteristic of ‘Made in Italy’ that have seen the strongest growth (+55.3 per cent in turnover over ten years), alongside the companies of so-called ‘IV capitalism’, that is, medium-sized and medium-to-large enterprises, which have once again proved to be an irreplaceable driving force behind the national economy, with revenues rising by 50.4 per cent over the decade.
However, as mentioned, there are also significant differences between the various sectors, with plant engineering and construction recording the most substantial increases (+142.5 per cent and +131.1 per cent respectively), whilst at the opposite end of the scale we find radio and television broadcasting (down by 12.5 per cent), the press and publishing sector (-4.4 per cent) and telecommunications (-3.7 per cent), the only sectors with turnover figures lower than those of 2016.
