Studies

Italian exports of food products and machinery for their transformation have grown at an increasing pace in the past year, with interesting prospects for future development.

Capital machinery is the pillar of the national trade surplus. With a value of € 82 billion, the sector represents the front line of our exports, and yet part of its potential is still unexpressed or undervalued.

In recent months, the news has been depicting an African continent in difficulty. Economic growth has been the lowest in recent years, and some old "bogeymen" like rising debt have re-emerged. Is the parable of the African economic miracle at risk?

The slowdown in China (GDP at +6.9% in 2015) should be viewed as an evolution of its economic structure, more oriented in the future toward internal consumption and less on export and investments.

The differences between advanced and emerging markets had narrowed in recent years, and it was growth in those latter markets that fueled the recovery. Today, however, in the wake of lower commodity prices and a slowdown in Asian demand, we are again faced with the “Old Normal”, or better yet a “New Old Normal”, where the advanced countries have begun to grow again and the others limp along behind.