Veneto keeps growing, despite global economy slowdown, and registers a 2.1% increase in GDP with respect to 2006, ahead of Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, behind the sole Lombardy (+2.2%); this is the picture painted by the Preview on Veneto Economic Report, carried out by Unioncamere Veneto and presented by the president Federico Tessari.

World economy suffered a slowdown in 2007, being conditioned by American housing and financial markets’ crisis. Global GDP grew by 4.9%, while the Euro-zone registered +2.6%, in line with the previous year but slightly lower than the whole EU, which marked +2.9%. Italy too felt the effects of this slight short-term economic downturn: its GDP grew by 1.5% in 2007, a little less than the 1.8% increase in 2006.

The president of Unioncamere Veneto Mr. Federico Tessari says that: "Veneto growth trend, despite its being more limited than in the previous year, is in line with Italian trends. According to national Unioncamere, regional GDP at constant prices registered an increase of 2.1% compared with 2006, that is, six tenths of a point higher than Italian growth.

As compared with other regions, Veneto growth trend turned out to be higher than those of Emilia-Romagna (+1.9%) and Tuscany (+1.1%), in line with Piedmont and slightly lower than Lombardy (+2.2%).

North-Eastern regions, lead by Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and Veneto, played an essential role in the Italian economic growth in 2007 too, together with the North-West (+2.1%), and followed at a distance by the regions of the Centre (+1.5%) and South (+1.4%) of Italy”.

“The growth experienced by GDP was supported by domestic demand, which increased by 2.1%, and in particular by family consumption: +2.4%”.

Agriculture performed well (+10% in gross production with respect to 2006, and 4,800 million euros of turnover), as well as the manufacturing sector (industrial production marked +2.7% compared with 2006, as opposed to the national increase of 0.4%). Craft enterprises proliferated: over 147 thousand realities, that is, 400 enterprises more than 2006, with an increase of 0.3%.

Good results were achieved also by business services sector (+8.6% of turnover and +5% of employment), transports (+7.5% of turnover and +4.1% of employment), and information technology with telecommunications (+3.5% of turnover and +4.2% of employment).

Retail trade marked an increase of 1.8% in sales, mainly car registrations (+6.4%).

Tourism worked well: between January and December 2007, there has been a rise of 5.3%, equal to 700 thousand arrivals for a total of 14.1 million tourists, and overnight stays grew too, overcoming the amount of 61.5 million people.

12.1 million passengers (+13% compared to 2006) and 50.7 tonnes of goods (-13.2% compared to 2006) passed through Veneto airports.

Traffic through Venice port maintained its amount over 30 million tons (-2.4% compared to 2006), while passengers increased by 2.2%.

Tessari underlines that: “Employment in Veneto grew by 0.8% in 2007, and employed people rose to 2 million and 119 thousand units. Employment rate reached quota 65.8%, opposed to 65.5% in 2006; the unemployment rate decreased to 3.3%, while in 2006 it was 4%." 

"According to our estimates, exports reached a value of 49.5 million euros, growing by 7%, even if they suffered a slowdown with respect to 2006, when they registered an increase of 13.9%.

Even so, the 7% increase explains our tour operators' success, and the production system's ability to find trade openings in spite of the lack of external economies and infrastructures within the national system."

“Compared with North-Eastern average (+9.3%), lead by Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and Emilia-Romagna, Veneto highlighted a less lively dynamism in exports, though in line with other export-oriented regions as Piedmont (+6.6%), Lombardy (+9.3%) and Tuscany (+7.8%)".

However, forecasts for 2008 are still uncertain, due to world trends.

“Predictions, which were initially optimistic, anticipate a slowdown for the current year. Estimates of growth for Veneto in 2008 fluctuate between 1.2% and 1.6%, but in the light of recent drastic drops in the estimates for Italian economy, regional development rate could suffer a decreasing variation”.

The president of Unioncamere Veneto concludes by saying that: “Despite the instability of international financial markets and difficulties on energy and raw material costs at the European and above all Italian levels, we can observe that Veneto economy maintains a good development rate, which represents a favourable sign to face future challenges.

The 2.1% increase as for GDP is a good result if we consider the above-mentioned difficulties, mainly because the rise was calculated in comparison with 2006, which had already been positive. As a consequence, our +2.1% is worth much more than the higher growth percentages of many emerging countries”.

The Preview on Veneto Economic Report
can be consulted online on Unioncamere Veneto website