Economics
Italy Looking for Exit From Lockdown’s Economic Cul-de-Sac
- Some industries might never recover if lockdown persists
- Government has to balance business with public health concerns
An ambulance of the Red Cross drives along a street in Brescia, Italy, on April 3.
Photographer: Francesca Volpi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
“The situation is just unsustainable,” complains Giovanni Savorani, who runs ceramics company Gigacer SpA in northern Italy’s virus-afflicted Emilia Romagna region.
Savorani, the chief of industry association Confindustria Ceramica, is just one of the voices heaping pressure on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to find a way out of the economic cul-de-sac created by the lockdown. Millions of companies, and their employees, have been affected, and many businesses fear bankruptcy.