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Tehran 3 July_As the pandemic in Italy has slowed down visibly in recent weeks, the country is now coming to terms with the economic toll that the COVID-19 emergency is taking.
The statistical agency ISTAT announced on Thursday that the level of employment has fallen by over half a million units due to the lockdown imposed by the government on most of Italy's production and industrial activities between March 10 and May 4.
Medium and small enterprises have suffered the most from the closure being forced to lay off employees ISTAT has also warned that the number of job seekers has fallen in Italy by almost 400,000 since February while the increase in inactive people has reached almost 900,000 units.
Rome relies heavily on the EU's emergency recovery instrument that goes under the name of Next Generation EU to steer the country out of the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. A political agreement on Brussel's proposed recovery instrument must now be reached among all EU member states.
However not all European member states are comfortable with supporting the more indebted southern EU countries like Italy. On Thursday Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Italy must learn to look after itself in the next economic crisis.
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