From the beginning of the pandemic to the present, Italian bars and restaurants have lost a figure of 45 billion euros due to intermittent closures and reopening, with various limitations due to the covid emergency. The alarming estimate is from Fipe, the Italian Federation of Confcommercio public businesses, consulted by Adnkronos.
“In 2020, public businesses lost over 34 billion euros, thus reaching a total loss of over 45 billion euros from the beginning of the pandemic to today”, remarks the director of the Fipe Confcommercio research office Luciano Sbraga. Furthermore, in 2021, in the first quarter of 2021, from January to today, the activities of the out-of-home sector have lost 9 billion euros (up to 25 April) and considering, the period up to the end of May (based on the duration of the reopening with the new rules envisaged by the latest government decree) Fipe estimates losses of up to 11.5 billion euros, adding an estimated loss of another 2.5 billion euros “.
In fact, with the new reopening decree, the daily loss in terms of turnover of these activities is between 50 and 55 million per day according to Fipe and therefore, as of May 31 for restaurants, a loss of 1.9 billion is estimated for a total 34 days and for the bars the loss will be 560 million euros, therefore in total about 2.5 billion euros. “This is a loss due to the fact that it is not possible to consume food or drinks inside the premises even in the yellow zone” adds the director of the Fipe studies office for which “we continue to intervene with inconceivable measures such as that of the ban of consumption at the counter, through a circular from the Ministry of the Interior, an unreasonable measure “.
But the huge losses in turnover bring with them other serious effects on the employment level and for the very survival of public places. “The sector is devastated – Sbraga remarks – we have already lost 22 thousand companies in 2020 and 242 thousand jobs, of which almost half are permanent because with the blocking of layoffs people have resigned, having perceived that they no longer have no future in the industry and have changed jobs “.