13-11-2019

“Italian digital market: +2.8% per year until 2021, but still below potential”

"The growing market is proof that digitalization is advancing,” says Marco Gay, president of Anitec-Assinform, “But we are still well below potential. Economic policy still underestimates the sweep of digital transformation and does not address the problem of a two-speed system, with companies committed to innovation but still too many small firms lagging behind and holding back. This is where we have to start from, strengthening existing measures, funding new ones already in the Budget Law, and getting the Innovation Fund working; this can also be a boost for the ICT sector, which is increasingly strategic in pushing innovation in all sectors and territories".

The Italian digital market (IT, telecommunications, digital media and consumer electronics) will grow in the 2019-2021 period at an average annual rate of 2.8%, consisting of a 2.5% increase to € 72.223 million in 2019, 2.8% to € 74.254 million in 2020 and 3.1% to € 76.536 million in 2021. This forecast follows on from a 2018 closed with 2.5% growth and the fourth consecutive year of market recovery. Performance differences between the most established and most innovative components will become more marked, with the latter forecast to enjoy a growth rate ten times higher between now and 2021. The estimates are, however, affected by factors such as ongoing investment in high-capacity communications networks, Industry 4.0 programs and public administration modernization programs (new Three-Year Plan); and, while the forecasts acknowledge a digital transformation under way, they still point to a country with too many firms, especially smaller ones, across many industries, hanging back from the modernization needed to keep creating value and jobs.

This is the picture that emerges from the 2019 edition of the “Digital in Italy” report, presented today by Anitec-Assinform – the Association of ICT companies under Confindustria – in conjunction with NetConsulting cube as part of the conference “Digital for Grow - Innovation, Growth and Transformation,” with the support of AlmavivA, 4.Manager, DXC Technology Italia, Facebook, NFON Italia and Philip Morris Italia.

Go to the Anitec-Assinform press release.