Italians living below the level of absolute poverty almost tripled over the last decade as the country went through a double-dip, record-long recession.
The absolute poor, or those unable to purchase a basket of necessary goods and services, reached 4.7 million last year, up from almost 1.7 million in 2006, national statistics agency Istat said yesterday. That is 7.9 percent of the population, with many of them concentrated in the nation’s southern regions.
As Italy went through its deepest, and then its longest, recession since World War II between 2008 and 2013, more than a quarter of the nation’s industrial production was wiped out. Over the same period unemployment also rose, with the rate rising to as high as 13 percent in 2014 from a low of 5.7 percent in 2007. Joblessness was at 11.3 percent at last check in May.
The number of absolute poor rose last year in the younger-age classes, reaching 10 percent in the group of those between 18 and 34 years old. It fell among seniors to 3.8 percent in the age group of 65 and older, the Istat report also showed.
