‘Let savings in Europe and Italia be channelled into productive investment’
An interview with Marco Piccitto, Managing Partner for the Mediterranean at McKinsey & Company
“What is missing is the conversion of savings into productive capital.” Marco Piccitto, Managing Partner for the Mediterranean at McKinsey & Company, who uses these words to comment on the phase of sharp wealth divergence between the major economies (US–China–Europe) described in McKinsey’s latest Global Balance Sheet.
Is Europe really destined for stagnation?
The eurozone finds itself in a situation similar to that of the pre-pandemic decade: productivity has been stagnant since 2022, weak demand, and household savings rising to 15.1 per cent in 2025 compared with an average of 12.5 per cent over the 2010–2019 decade. The paradox is that the European economy appears, on the whole, to be more balanced than the US economy, with property values and private debt having returned to historical averages. Productive investment remains below pre-pandemic levels and below the global average, and the investment gap between European firms and those in the United States stands at around 700 billion dollars. Closing this gap, through reforms to boost competitiveness and with businesses showing greater courage in investing, would change the trajectory; leaving it unaddressed would mean continuing with limited growth.
The Italian case: a strength or a missed opportunity?
Italian households hold around 13,000 billion dollars in net wealth, with debt levels among the lowest in the advanced economies and a property market readjusting towards its long-term average. The counterbalance is public debt at over 130 per cent of GDP: as in all advanced economies, with high interest rates, moderate growth alone may no longer be sufficient to ensure its sustainability. The encouraging sign is that in 2025, Italia was among the countries where net investment rates exceeded long-term averages, but investment must continue, both by private enterprises and by the state.
