The economic context 2013-2018

Italian economic policy in the last few years has been substantially restrictive and stemmed from concerns about the destabilising effects of the Italian public debt. The other main concern has been industrial competitiveness, stemming from the fact that the Italian economy has for many years been growing more slowly than the EU average. The two main concerns have influenced the more important economic-policy decisions taken, and the overall performance of the Italian economy. In this chapter, we shall consider both the policies and their impact on economic outcomes. We will begin by considering macroeconomic policies (section 2), then move on to what was the most important measure introduced in the legislature, the labour-market reform (section 3). We will briefly illustrate the principal measures of industrial policy (section 4) and those aimed at achieving more equitable distributions of income (section 5). In section 6 we will summarise the main economic proposals contained in the programmes the parties and coalitions presented during the election campaign and in the programme of the government formed after the elections. In the final section we will present our conclusions.