Italy opens up competition for lucrative beach resort licenses

Bloomberg

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi pushed through long-delayed changes on how Italy assigns licenses for public beaches, despite the opposition of one of the parties backing his government.
The government approved a plan to set up competitive tenders for the lucrative licenses from 2024, which allow bathhouses and resorts to be built on public land in exchange for minimal rents. Italy is in breach of European Union rules that call for open competition in the sector that date back to 2008.
The changes have been resisted by beach operators who say that shortening the duration of the licenses and allowing public tenders would drive them out of business and put jobs at risk. Center-right parties, including Matteo Salvini’s League which backs Draghi, support the status quo.
According to industry groups, the liberalisation would affect about 30,000 businesses. Italy made less than $114 million from beach licenses in 2019.
Italy’s debt load decreased
Italy’s debt load decreased more than anticipated last year helped by low borrowing costs and the fastest economic
expansion in decades.
“The strong recovery of the economy has been decisive in halting the increase of the public debt-to-GDP ratio, which might have fallen to around 150% at the end of 2021,” Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said during his speech at an annual Assiom Forex event in Parma. The result “clearly shows the importance of economic growth in gradually bringing down the debt burden.”
That beats previous estimates predicting debt at 154% of gross domestic product last year, and is much lower than the 156% of output hit in 2020. Visco also confirmed a growth target of more than 4% this year.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday growth will probably slow down in the first quarter due to the increase in energy prices and confirmed that the government plans to approve a new decree to ease energy bills. The government has already spent more than 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) to offset higher power prices.
Yields on Italian bonds rose sharply this week after the European Central Bank signaled mounting inflation concerns and a potential acceleration in dialing back monetary stimulus. The premium investors demand to own 10-year Italian bonds over safer German securities widened to levels last seen in July 2020.
“As the recovery consolidates, it will nevertheless be necessary to rebalance the structure of public accounts gradually and steadily to avoid tensions on the government bond market,” Visco said.
Italy’s economy is set to reach pre-crisis levels by the middle of this year, according to the central banker.