Milan’s manufacturing sector remains resilient in the first half of 2026
The economy of Milan, Lodi, Monza and Brianza is set to grow by 0.7 per cent in 2025. The number of businesses is set to rise by 2.1 per cent and by 0.8 per cent in the first half of this year
A modest increase of just 0.7 per cent, but still higher than the national average (+0.5 per cent) and, above all, an increase. This is by no means a foregone conclusion given the context in which businesses operate in the metropolitan city of Milan and the provinces of Monza, Brianza and Lodi: not only the current geopolitical and economic climate but, more generally, the structural context of a business landscape based on micro and small enterprises (around 90 per cent of the more than 400,000 active businesses in the area), for which it is not easy to keep pace with the profound technological and organisational transformations currently underway.
As it does every year, the ‘Milano Produttiva’ report provides an overview of the current state of play and the challenges facing the manufacturing sector in this region: in 2025, economic growth in the provinces of Milan, Monza Brianza and Lodi stood at 0.7 per cent – a modest figure, despite a climate of considerable uncertainty linked to global energy and geopolitical crises that companies had to contend with throughout the year.
This increase was driven mainly by the services sector (+0.7 per cent) and, to a lesser extent, by industry (+0.4 per cent). Analysis by the Research, Statistics and Planning Department, based on Prometeia data updated to the first quarter, indicates that GDP growth in the Milan-Lodi-Monza and Brianza area remains stable (at +0.7%) for the current year as well.
The report states that the region remains fertile ground for the creation of new businesses: the net figure for new registrations minus deregistrations rose by 10,007 last year (compared with an increase of 8,428 in 2024), with a growth rate of 2.1 per cent, higher than the national figure (+0.96 per cent) and that of Lombardy (+1.41 per cent).
Milan is driving the figures, with a net increase of 9,179 businesses. Taking the Metropolitan City area as a whole, 26,262 new businesses were registered in 2025 (compared with 25,099 in 2024), with a smaller but significant contribution also coming from the provinces of Monza and Brianza (4,514 businesses) and Lodi (922 businesses).
