“Le regioni del Mezzogiorno – Focus on local economies”, is an interpretation of the situation of the local economies which includes the analysis of the principal economic, financial and production data available for Southern Italy, for the 8 regions belonging to it and for the Lazio region, included in the analysis due to geographic proximity. The Focus is developed as a compact tool, which can be quickly consulted, intended for all those who operate in the region and who need to be constantly updated on the trends of local economy, drawing from it information useful for making their own choices in the various aspects of their business.

The publication, since n. 1 - April 2005 – which keeps getting richer in its content, also includes an analysis on employment data and a special insert on the principal current themes relative to the economy of Mezzogiorno.  In particular, the following subjects are covered:

the structure of the regional economy:

analysis of the structure of the regional economy, of the relative model of specialization and the progress of exports;

the dynamics and the economic-financial structure of businesses:

data relative to the birth and death rate of businesses, application of a methodology for the study of the most significant balance sheet entries of a closed sampling of businesses operating in the three principal economic sectors of Southern Italy and for each region. The aspects noted are described in their temporal evolution over the span of four successive fiscal years;

Trend of the size of credit

information on the number of windows of each bank and their relative market quota, economic trends of jobs by length of time, for the principal technical figures and economic sectors where the credit is channeled; trend of the banking interest rates highlighting the relative margin;

Investments and policies of development:

all the most important news items, region by region, on infrastructure projects, operations in project financing and utilization of the community, national and regional funds for the development of the region;

Employment:

information on employment figures, of individuals looking for work and the unemployment rate;

Regional monitoring:

in order to obtain confirmation of the results of the analysis, optimizing the exchange of information with the operators, this section contains a summary of opinions on the condition of the most significant production and business facts at the regional level, obtained by interviewing on the telephone a panel of qualified operators on the region from the network SANPAOLO IMI and SANPAOLO BANCO DI NAPOLI.

The publication was started in 2003 on a quarterly basis. From n. 3 of July 2004 it went to every six months, with two issues – one in April and one in October every year.