In Italy there are more and more social and economic inequalities, with the top 10% of Italian assets having at the end of 2021 more than six times the wealth of the poorest half of the population.
A share of families in absolute poverty out of the total that "more than doubled" between 2005 and 2021.
And now due to high inflation, a "serious erosion" of household purchasing power, amidst wage adjustments that do not arrive and with a fall in real wages in the first 9 months of the year which has reached 6.6 points percentages.
This is the photograph of Dissuitalia, the report that the non-governmental organization
Oxfam
dedicates to Italy at the start of the Davos Forum
"First the pandemic and, now, the energy crisis, the increase in prices - with an inflation rate that has never been so high for over 35 years - and the new recessionary winds risk further exacerbating the long-term gaps that characterize the our country," warns Oxfam.
With
almost two million families in absolute poverty
, net income inequality grew in Italy in 2020, albeit greatly mitigated by emergency public transfers.
A figure for which "Italy - writes Oxfam - ranks among the last countries in the EU".
Absolute poverty, stable in 2021 after a significant leap in 2020, affects 7.5% of families, an "alarming phenomenon" which has seen the share of families with an insufficient spending level double in 16 years to guarantee a standard of minimally acceptable life.
"The increase in the incidence of poverty was mitigated, in the emergency, by public interventions to support families, but the prospects for a decline are strong in light of the current risk factors for the Italian economy such as the impacts of the Russian conflict -Ukrainian and the growth of inflation", warns Mikhail Maslennikov, policy advisor on economic justice at Oxfam Italy.
"Family support measures must continue and be better directed towards families in conditions of greatest need. It is also essential to abandon the transitional regime of the Citizenship Income for 2023, reforming the only structural measure to combat poverty that we have ;
The inflation shock, according to Oxfam, has led to a collapse in real wages "for more than 6 million private employees".
And precisely on the reduction of inequalities, the NGO deems the government's measures insufficient: "If the spread of poor work represents a structural feature of the Italian market, the initiatives already put in place and the intentions of the new government are causing concern - says Maslennikov - rather than discouraging the use of atypical forms of work that trap millions of workers in precariousness, the government widens the mesh for discontinuous work and calls for further interventions of flexibility.The provision of a minimum wage is not on the agenda and the incentives for employment - under the banner of "the more you hire, the less you pay"