Liguria: GDP forecast to grow by 0.8 per cent in 2026

Liguria is set to end 2026 with GDP growth of 0.8 per cent, 0.1 percentage points higher than the national average of 0.7 per cent. This is one of the estimates presented at the tenth edition of the Liguria 2030 think tank, the forum for discussion promoted by the Teha Group (The European House Ambrosetti) in collaboration with the Liguria Region, which took place yesterday in Rapallo. And, in light of these figures, the Governor of Liguria, Marco Bucci, emphasised that work is underway “to bring the European gigafactory for artificial intelligence and the Nuclear Agency to Genoa. ‘Now we must start working on the importance of water for the future; the value of water worldwide will continue to rise in the coming years, and we have an abundance of it, so this is an opportunity we must make the most of.’

In 2025, according to the Teha study, Ligurian exports reached 9.4 billion euros and grew by 10.2 per cent, compared with the national average of 3.3 per cent, recording the fourth-highest growth rate among Italy’s regions; the report highlights that ‘this trend continued in the first quarter of 2026 with an increase of 20.8 per cent – approximately 16 times that of Italia at +1.3 per cent and the North-West at +1.3 per cent’. In 2025, the employment rate in Liguria rose to 68.8 per cent compared with the national average of 62.5 per cent, and the number of people in employment reached 623,000 – approximately 14,000 more than the previous year – representing a 2.3 per cent increase, compared with the national average’s +0.4 per cent. Furthermore, Liguria is consolidating certain distinctive specialisations: it ranks first in Italia in the blue economy in terms of the proportion of businesses (11 per cent), value added (14.4 per cent) and the number of people in employment (15.2 per cent). By 2025, the region will rise to second place nationally in terms of the share of high-tech exports, at 67.5 per cent compared with the national average of 53.1 per cent.

“Over the decade 2015–2024,” said Valerio De Molli, managing partner and CEO of the Teha Group, “the added value of Liguria’s industry has strengthened significantly, rising in absolute terms from €7.5 billion to €11 billion – an increase of 45.8 per cent – and increasing its share of the regional economy from 18.1 per cent to 20.9 per cent”. Furthermore, “in 2025, tourist arrivals in Liguria reached 5.3 million, the highest figure ever recorded, exceeding pre-Covid levels from 2019 by 9.8 per cent; international arrivals totalled 2.6 million and now account for almost half of regional tourist flows at 49.1 per cent, compared with 45 per cent in 2016.”

According to Teha’s analysis, in 2025 the ports of Liguria handled over 4.2 million TEUs (20-foot containers, representing a 3.9 per cent increase on 2024), consolidating Liguria’s role as the main gateway for containers within the Italian port system. Furthermore, this growth in traffic has been accompanied by a strengthening of the cruise sector, which last year saw around 3.2 million passengers pass through Ligurian ports (+8.3 per cent compared with 2024), accounting for approximately 22 per cent of the national total.