Italy’s economic losses from shutting down production in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus can amount to about 100 billion euros a month, said President of the Confederation of the Italian Industry Confindustria Vincenzo Boccia.
“If we close 70% (of firms) that means we’ll lose 100 billion every 30 days,” said Confindustria chief Vincenzo Boccia.
He said that with the government’s fresh clampdown the economy was moving “from an economic emergency to a wartime economy”.
Boccia said he “honestly (didn’t) understand a union threat of a general strike to make factories even safer.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a government decree on Sunday to suspend production in the country, which is unrelated to the provision of essential goods and services to the general public. According to the prime minister, the authorities have “decided to delay the operation of the country’s motor without shutting it down completely”.
“This decree raises the question of the transition from an economic emergency to a military economy,” Bocha told Radio Capital in this regard.
In the country, 70% of the producers cease working.
“If our GDP represents EUR 1.8 trillion a year, that means we produce EUR 150 billion a month. If we close 70% of production, that means that we lose 100 billion every 30 days, “Boccia said.
Italy is the third euro area economy and Europe’s first coronavirus to spread. Late last week, it outpaced China by this indicator. According to official figures released yesterday by the Director of the National Civil Defense Service, Angelo Borelli, at the moment, the Apennines have registered almost 60,000 cases of infection, over 7,000 have recovered, and the death toll is 5467.