Expenses for medical visits, clinical analyzes and radiological examinations have been almost eliminated. This is one of the data that emerged from the Senate hearing of Istat president Enrico Giovannini. More than seven families out of 10 (71%), explained the Istat president, have changed the quantity and quality of the products purchased. The only expense kept is the incompressible one for medicines. These are families in the bracket with the lowest spending levels. Households which, in the comparison between 1997 and 2011, increased the average expenditure of 42% also resorting to forms of debt to the point that, in 2011, 19% of them affected their savings and among these, almost half also increased existing debts or contracted new ones. These families, says Istat again in the document presented to the special commissions of the Chamber and Senate, have essentially eliminated the expenses linked to items that are not strictly necessary. To complete the picture triggered by the crisis, extra-European exports, which increased on a trend basis for more than three years, stopped their run and our sales dropped by 1.3%. A not so significant percentage but of great importance in substantial terms, because at a time when incomes, consumption, investments, employment and sales in Europe are falling, extra-European exports were able to support the turnover of companies (MM)
April 24, 2013 – DoctorNews33
