Italy: Selected Issues

IMF Staff Country Reports, July 26, 2023

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Italy: Selected Issues

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Bibliographic details

• Published: July 26, 2023
• Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400249280.002

Demographic drag and catch-up potential

• Italy faces a demographic drag on output that requires fundamental changes to shift from the current suboptimal equilibrium.
• Italy has large catch-up potential to help overcome the demographic drag on output.
• On numerous metrics, Italy is among the worst EU performers in areas that directly bear on output, including:
  • female labor force participation
  • NEET youth
  • educational attainment
  • digitalization

Labor participation and productivity constraints

• Increasing employment is essential, but not sufficient to secure sustained output growth.
• Boosting female labor force participation and the effective retirement age would raise economic output, but:
  • such measures alone would not achieve growth unless accompanied by higher capital and total factor productivity.
• Going forward, Italy needs a sustained, pro-growth strategy to significantly boost productivity to counteract demographic decline.

Reform priorities and implementation timing

• There is scope to quickly narrow labor participation gaps.
• Transformational reforms are needed to address critical shortcomings in:
  • education
  • competition
  • public administration
  • the judicial system
• These reforms likely entail long gestation periods and therefore:
  • it is imperative that reforms be implemented promptly and decisively.

Key publication metadata and identifiers (as stated)

• Publication date: July 26, 2023
• Pages: 29
• Volume: 2023
• Issue: 274
• Series: Country Report No. 2023/274
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400249280.002
• Stock No: 1ITAEA2023002
• ISBN: 9798400249280
• ISSN: 1934-7685

International Monetary Fund. "Italy: Selected Issues", IMF Staff Country Reports 2023, 274 (2023).

Content in this bundle

• Italy: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 23/274; July 5, 2023
  • Italy: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 23/274; July 5, 2023 (Markdown version)
  • Italy: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 23/274; July 5, 2023 (PDF)