With the publication of detailed macroeconomic and demographic data for 2024 by Eurostat, it is clear that the narrative of Italy being in severe difficulty does not match the reality. Looking at the last five years (2020-2024) in Europe, Spain leads Italy in total GDP growth compared to 2019, but not by much (+6.9% versus 5.6%), while the countries trailing far behind Italy are France (+3.6%), Germany (literally on its knees, with only +0.3%), and among the major non-EU countries, the UK (+3.5%) and Japan (+1.4%) are also underperforming.

. In fact, GDP—the ultimate economic indicator—does not reflect at all what is truly happening with the advanced economies after the pandemic.