EDF 2014: The Missing Sources for Growth.
The Economic and Financial Document (EFD) 2014 for Italy describes a country which does not grow and will hardly grow even in the near future. The document announces a programme of structural reforms in the labour market and for competitiveness which will generate marginal impacts on domestic demand; at the same time, it foresees an over-optimistic growth for export and private investments although ti does not say how it will be realized, given (in a context of measures devoted to respect) the constraints of balanced budget and fiscal consolidation. The recipe for the
next few years adopted in the Italian EFD 2014, recommended by the European Commission, is a perverse mix of “expansionary austerity” and “expansionary precariousness” which leaves no room for employment recovery, wage growth, and not even for economic policy supporting domestic
demand and industrial policy for innovation.