Closed thousands of large and small businesses. But there is confidence in the Renzi's government

by Pierpaolo De Natale - The economic crisis in Italy continues to affect families and companies. Businesses close: more than 3,600 bankruptcies in the first quarter of 2014, says Unioncamere, the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Handicraft and Agriculture.

Lombardy seems to be the region with the higher number of bankruptcies, followed by Lazio and Tuscany.

75,000 small businesses also closed. "Drastic reduction in families consumption cost, strong increase in taxes, the weight of the bureaucracy and the restriction of credit - reports Giuseppe Bortolussi, secretary of Cgia (Italian General Confederation of Crafts) - are among the causes which have forced many artisans to throw in the towel. Not being able to count on social safety net, after the closure of many businesses, they have found no other job and have gone to swell the number of jobless, taking with them the debts accumulated over the years".

The situation does not improve if we analyze the situation of Italian families. The survey of Confcommercio-CENSIS does not report encouraging results: in the first half of 2014, eight out of ten families tell to live "a feeling of insecurity and instability".

However, there is "a slight improvement in confidence," tied to "optimism about the Renzi's reforms, 66% of the sample believes that the government is able to overcome the country's long economic crisis.