Italy won Euro 2020 after a fierce match with England Is the power of football a reflection of economic success? not exactly. Italy’s GDP fell by 8.9% in 2020, and the country is struggling with a high unemployment rate of 10.5%. In addition, one in three Italians under the age of 25 is unemployed.

Italy was only seventh in the FIFA best teams ranking before the tournament,

However, they turned out to be the best football team in Europe. This indicates that, as in the case of investment, often past results (and the FIFA ranking is based on them) often do not tell everything about the current situation. The opponents of the Italians – the English – took fourth place in the standings, but lost the final match on penalties. Earlier, the two best teams in the standings – Belgium and France – were eliminated from the tournament. Poland also fared much worse than our team’s 21st in the standings.

England lost, despite having a richer football league and higher GDP per capita

Although England, Scotland and Wales played separately on the stadiums, we took into account the United Kingdom in the economic comparison. In the UK, the GDP per capita is €37,830, and in Italy it is 27%. Less – 27,780 euros, and in Poland by up to 64 percent. Less – 13,640 euros. However, the real difference in living standards between these countries is less, mainly due to differences in prices across markets. Eurostat publishes the Actual Individual Consumption Index (AIC), which better shows the real purchasing power of households as verified by purchasing power parity. For the UK, this percentage is 110%. The average community, while for Italy it is 97% and Poland 83%. (2020 data).

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The past year has been difficult for almost all economies,

Equally difficult for both teams was yesterday’s final. The Italian economy contracted by 8.9 percent, slightly less than the British economy, which contracted by as much as 9.8 percent. Against this background, Poland certainly stands out favorably, because our GDP decreased by only 2.7%. The forecast for this year is again in line with FIFA rankings, with UK GDP expected to rise by 6.8%, Italy by 5% and Poland by 4.8%. (European Commission and UK government projections).

Italians have the least of the inflation problems, at just 1.2 percent. (HICP, 05/2021)

In the UK, CPI inflation in May was higher than in Italy, but remained moderate – 2.1%. In Poland, HICP inflation, calculated according to the Common European Methodology, was 4.8% in May. The opposite is the case for unemployment in Italy, which reaches 10.5%. For comparison, in the UK it is 4.7%, and in Poland only 3.8%. (according to Eurostat methodology). Italians have the biggest problem with unemployment for people under the age of 25, with 31.7% unemployed. people of this age. There is no UK job at 10.6%. young people, and in Poland 13.5 per cent.

If we look at the stock exchanges in Milan and London,

It’s the first that has done better since the start of the year. The most important Italian index, the FTSE MIB, to date grew by 10.83 percent. While the London FTSE100 index increased by 8.99 percent. However, WIG20 broke both benchmarks, rising as much as 13.5 percent. It is a pity that it is not the stock exchanges that decide who will win the euro, because then we will be in a much better position.

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If only the most important economic indicators are taken into account, then English should be the winner of the final

Nevertheless, the Italians became the champions on the field, first equalizing in the score, and then later turning out to be better in the penalty shootout competition. They showed that although they may play worse temporarily, they can stick to the assumed pattern in the long term. A similar principle should guide us when we invest our money – create a strategy and stick to it. We must also not forget about geographical diversification – maybe you start by choosing the best companies from Italy, Great Britain and Poland?