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June, 4. Competition, Italian companies expectations, consumer confidence, labour taxation, pensions
pubblicato il 11/06/2009 in MERCATO & REGOLE
June, 4. Competition. According to a survey of the Italian Competition Authority on the storage of natural gas, ENI should give up part of its stocks (government concessions) to make the Italian gas market more competitive and predictable, as is the case with the electricity sector. According to the Authority, the gas sector reveals “significant weaknesses” and requires “a significant strengthening of storage capacity, a key to security of supply”.
Also to tackle this problem, the government recently adopted a series of measures, including higher charges for business and families. Being the former monopolist, ENI takes advantage of the current lack of storage capacity.
To encourage liberalization and improve competition in the gas storage market, as already experienced in the electricity market, the Authority considers essential the elimination of barriers and distortions to the development of new storage capacity and the sale of assets from ENI to third parties.
May, 29. Italian companies expectations. According to the last survey of ISAE (Institute of Economic Research and Analysis) in the month of May 2009, business confidence in the manufacturing and mining sectors, rose to 68.7 from 65.5 the previous month, a level above the value of December 2008. This is the second rise, after 7 consecutive declines. Companies’ expectations vary according to the different productive sectors and key geographical areas.
The improvement in confidence is sharper in the consumer goods, intermediate goods and, albeit in a more contained measure, in the investments goods sectors. At territorial level, confidence mainly improves in the North West and Southern regions. Reviews on key business variables improve, confirming the modest signs of recovery already emerged during the previous months.
Also in May, businesses express more favourable expectations for the next three months regarding the development of key business variables and the Italian economy in general. Positive expectations are recorded as to the access to credit: the companies that see credit conditions deteriorating are down from 33.6 to 28.2% of the sample, with a particularly strong decrease for medium and large companies and, on a territorial basis, North East and South.
As for other economic sectors, the survey shows a slight deterioration in the confidence of small and large retailers. The seasonally adjusted indicator slipped from 94.6 to 95.4, a level slightly higher than the average for the first four months of the year. A decline is expected on the volume of business, in particular in the construction sector, mainly because of the falling in employment prospects.
May, 27. Italian consumer confidence. Consumer confidence remained stable in May, according to a study by the ISAE (Institute of Economic Research and Analysis). The index stabilizes at 104.9, the same as in April, the highest value since the levels of December 2007. Better indications than that registered in recent months are given by the indicators for the overall economic situation, that mark further improvements (rising to 77.1 from 74.8).
The index for current opinions on the economy, increasing from 112.5 to 113.5, marks the highest level since August 2007. The indicators regarding the personal economic situations (119.3) and future economic prospects (from 94.3 to 94.4) remain broadly unchanged.
On a territorial base, the consumer confidence improves in the North-East and grows moderately in the North-West and central regions, while it decreases in the South.
Expectations relative to unemployment over the next 12 months decrease, dropping from 91 to 86, nearing November levels.
May, 16. Labour Taxation. Taxes on wage earners fell slightly in 2008 in many OECD countries according to the OECD’s annual Taxing Wages publication. Taxing wages compares the shares of employee earnings taken by governments through taxation by calculating the so called “tax wedge”, the difference between labour costs to the employer and the net take-home pay of the employee, including any cash benefits from government welfare programmes. The overall cost of employment is a key factor in companies’ hiring decisions, and thus, indirectly, a factor affecting unemployment trends.
For a single individual without children the tax wedge varied widely across the OECD countries: at the top end of the scale there is Belgium with 56%, the OECD average being 37%. Among the most important EU countries, the tax wedge was 52% in Germany, 49% in France and 47% in Italy, while in Spain and the UK the tax wedge was lower than 30%. In 2008 the Italian tax wedge rose by 0.25%, this increase is due primarily to higher income taxes because social security contributions were not increased.
On the other hand, for a one-earner married couple with two children on average earnings the Italian tax wedge was 36%, in line with the data of Germany (36%), lower than France (42%) but higher than Spain (32%) and the UK (27%). In this case tax wedge’s growth (0.9%) was, in 2008, more then double that of a single without children.
Source: OECD
May, 11. Competition. AGCOM (Italy’s Communications authority) and AGCM (Italy’s Antitrust authority) ended their joint survey on the markets of short messaging (sms, mms) and data mobility. These markets continue to grow and in 2008 had a combined turnover of € 4 billion. The survey showed that in these markets there is a lack of transparency, unfavourable conditions for consumers and wholesale prices that place new market players at a disadvantage. However, particularly for the sms market (whose turnover is around 2 billion euros), the survey showed that there is room for lower prices, both retail and wholesale, also thanks to new European regulations. Indeed, from July 1 next, cross-border sms will be capped at 11 cents retail and 4 cents wholesale.
The two authorities expect that operators will take advantage of the room, without a need for regulatory intervention to ensure a level playing field.
May, 6. Pensions. The Consiglio Nazionale dell’Economia e del Lavoro (CNEL) presented its joint report with Centro Europea Ricerche (CER) on the long-term sustainability of the Italian pension system. The model investigates the evolution until 2050, with forecasts on the impact upon the younger generation and expenditures relative to GDP.
The simulation takes into account the development of macroeconomic and demographic variables and other key factors such as the size of the workforce and the dynamics of productivity. The results indicate that pensions will absorb a growing portion of GDP until 2010 and then they will remain stable until 2040.
Source: CNEL
April, 29. Competition. The Authority for Competition launched three distinct investigations on a few important distributors of gas and electricity (Italgas, Acea Distribuzione, A2A Gas Networks and Electrical Networks A2A) and their holding companies (ENI, ACEA and A2A).
The investigations were launched following a series of reports sent by the company Sorgenia to verify if there has been abuse of dominant position in the respective markets.
The three distributors are suspected to have delayed proceedings for the transition of customers towards competitors operating in the market of electricity and gas.
