All this may be due to the poor economic situation in Italy, whose economy is accelerating into a state of contraction. In the fourth quarter of 218, Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) fell by .2% month-on-month, falling for the second consecutive quarter, that is, it officially entered a technical recession and became the first EU economy to enter a recession since 213.

While the economic growth rate continues to decline, Italy is also facing a huge debt default risk, and its debt scale is second only to Greece in the euro zone. According to official Italian data, in 217, Italy's government debt was 2.3 trillion euros, accounting for 131.2% of GDP, which was not only higher than the 6% standard set by the European Union, but also exceeded the 9% public debt warning line of developed countries.

It is obvious that there are serious problems in Italy's economy, and the risk of a large-scale economic recession may break out at any time. For Italy, seeking economic cooperation with foreign countries may be the only way to save the economy at present, so it is not difficult to understand the signal of economic cooperation with China.

I believe many people will find that Italy's economic situation is familiar, just like Greece that triggered the European debt crisis. However, compared with Greece, Italy's economic strength is obviously much stronger. Italy is not only one of the seven industrialized countries in the west, but also the fourth largest economy in Europe and the ninth largest economy in the world. It stands to reason that Italy should have a strong ability to resist economic recession and repay debt risks, so why is Italy in today's predicament?

This result may be related to the organizational form of Italian enterprises. Italy's small and medium-sized enterprises are very developed, accounting for more than 99.8% of the total number of enterprises. Italy was once known as the "Kingdom of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises", and most of the enterprise operation modes are family-centered. According to the European Commission's SME tracking report, 95% of Italian enterprises have fewer than 1 employees.

due to small scale and family management, Italian enterprises have some shortcomings in management, which makes it difficult to compare with foreign mature large enterprises. In the same industry, large-scale enterprises often invest more in R&D and innovation, manufacturing, modernization and upgrading, and can take advantage of economies of scale, and the overall production efficiency is much higher than that of Italian enterprises. Previously, OECD data showed that the labor productivity level of Italian enterprises was lower than that of foreign counterparts.

In addition, Italy's labor productivity has improved slowly, and even had a downward trend. The data shows that from 1995 to 215, Italy's labor productivity grew at an average annual rate of .3%, while the EU's average annual growth rate reached 1.6%. Among them, Italy's labor productivity decreased by .3% in 215.

This result may be related to the local people's aversion to employment competition. In Italy, it is very common for young people not to study or find jobs. According to the data released by the Court of Audit of the European Union, by the end of 216, the total number of Nite people under the age of 3 in Italy (especially those who don't go to school, get employed, take part in employment training and do nothing all day) reached 2.2 million, accounting for 24.3% of the total number of young people, which is the highest in Europe, while the average level in the European Union is 14.2% and that in Germany is only 8.8%.

it must be said that the small and medium-sized enterprise form and inefficient labor production efficiency have restricted Italy's economic development. According to the data, all kinds of medium-tech products in Italy occupy a considerable share in the world market, but there are relatively few high-tech products. With the development of economic globalization and the continuous progress of science and technology, more and more countries are moving towards industrial modernization and scale, which brings great competitive pressure to many industries with low technical barriers in Italy.

In the past, when the labor productivity was low, Italy could maintain its export competitiveness by devaluing its currency. But after joining the euro zone, this "magic weapon" of Italy completely failed. Due to the use of the single currency euro, the trade between EU member countries can only use the euro, and Italy can no longer use the devaluation of the lira to gain export advantages, which completely exposes Italy's economic weakness with low labor productivity and reduces its economic vitality.

data show that from 2 to 217, Italy's economy grew at an average annual rate of .15%, which is close to "zero growth", and it is at the bottom of the euro zone countries, which is in sharp contrast to its average annual growth of 4.8% in the 196s and 197s and 2% in the 198s and 199s.

Overall, in the past 17 years, Italy's GDP has increased by 2.6 percentage points, far behind other economies in the euro zone, especially France, Germany and Spain, which increased by 21.7 percentage points, 23.7 percentage points and 31.3 percentage points respectively.

in addition to the impact of the unification of the euro, the inefficiency of government and public services has also contributed a lot to dragging down the Italian economy. In the ranking of global economic freedom index, Italy ranks 64th in the world, 29th in Europe and the last one in the euro zone.

According to the World Justice Project, Italy's civil justice system ranks second from the bottom among 35 high-income countries. According to the data released by the EU Judicial Efficiency Committee, it takes an average of nearly 3, days for each legal lawsuit in Italy to wait for the final result, while Switzerland, with the highest judicial efficiency, only needs about 4 days, and the average level of European countries only needs about 6 days.

Such low judicial efficiency has obviously had a negative effect on the Italian economy. Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) research showed that if the time for resolving labor disputes is cut in half, employment opportunities will increase by about 8%, and credit costs will be reduced and investment will be attracted.

As the economic environment becomes worse, the employment problem in Italy has become more and more serious. According to Eurostat data, the employment rate of Italian graduates has been deteriorating, from the highest point of 66.2% in 26 to below 5% in 213, and has been below 5% in recent years. In contrast, the employment rate of graduates in Spain is 65%, that in France is 72%, and that in Germany is 9%.

According to a previous survey by the European Commission, the biggest concern of Italian voters is the soaring unemployment rate. Earlier, local media reported that in 217, the Italian bank announced the recruitment of 3 junior employees, and as a result, it received more than 8, applications.

Facing the pressure of economic growth and the serious employment problem, the Italian government has never found an effective solution, but has maintained high welfare social expenditure for a long time. Italy is a high welfare country. In 217, social welfare expenditure accounted for 2% of GDP, much higher than other European countries.

After the current government came to power, the attitude towards the original welfare policy in Italy's ruling plan remained unchanged. It is worth mentioning that Italy's budget for 219 submitted to the European Commission showed that the fiscal deficit accounted for 2.4% of GDP, much higher than that of deficit ratio, which was 2.1% in 217, and was forced to drop to 2.4% after being opposed by the European Union.

The weak economy makes Italy's fiscal revenue grow slowly, and the excessive welfare expenditure leads to the excessive fiscal expenditure, which intensifies the debt pressure of the Italian government, which is also the reason for the serious debt problem of the Italian government mentioned at the beginning.

At present, the capital market has almost lost confidence in Italy's economic growth, and it is always worried that it will fall into recession. In this case, the Italian government can only find ways to stimulate economic growth by itself, and loose monetary policy seems to be the only way for Italy. However, due to its status as a euro zone country, Italy has no independent monetary decision-making power, and can neither implement loose monetary policy nor adopt active fiscal policy.

For Italy, saving the economic recovery seems to be a "dead end". But fortunately, God never shuts one door but he opens another. With a brainwave, Italy turned its attention to China, which is expanding its foreign investment and opening up. Data show that China is Italy's largest trading partner in Asia and the third largest source of Italy's imports. In 218, the bilateral trade volume between China and Italy exceeded 5 billion US dollars, up 9.1% year-on-year.

The economies of China and Italy are highly complementary, and there is great potential for cooperation. For example, there is much room for cooperation in the fields of finance, health, art and tourism, and there are many points of convergence of interests. Through this cooperation, the Italian economy will usher in new growth opportunities, and we will wait and see whether Italy can make good use of this important opportunity to achieve economic rejuvenation.