According to the analysis conducted by the Confindustria Moda Study Center for Assopellettieri, the first half of 2022 closed positively, marking a marked recovery in all the main economic variables, reflecting a prosecution of the post-pandemic consolidation.

In particular, there is an increase for industrial production of +12.4% over 2021 (remaining, however, significantly below the January-June 2019 period) and an average trend increase in turnover of +15%. Data that are supported by recoveries in the domestic market, which marks +12.2% (remaining, however, -8.7% below 2019 figures,) and especially in exports, which record +17.3% in value in the first 5 months, despite a significant slowdown, in volume terms, in April and May.

Dynamics on which the big luxury brands play a key role (as witnessed by the non-negligible increase in the average price, both overall and on some important outlet markets), which allowed to reduce the gap with the pre-Covid 2019 situation to -1% in terms of volume, and to exceed it by 4.4% in value.

Bags are the best-selling product (they cover more than 2/3 in value) and show an increase of +20.2%; followed at a distance by small leather goods , with a 16% share, and belts (+13%), while luggage and travel items show less marked recoveries (+9.4%).

In terms of target markets, sales in the European Union are doing well (+17% in value); North American markets (U.S. +67% and Canada +81%), South Korea (+43%), the United Arab Emirates (+90%) and Japan (+27%) are shining, all already significantly above pre-Covid 2019 levels. The new lockdowns curbed, as widely expected, exports to China (-26.3% in value in the April-May two-month period, thus limiting growth to +3% in the cumulative 5 months), while Russia and Ukraine collapsed (-53.5% and -77.2% in the 4 months following the outbreak of the conflict).

The sector thus continues its post-pandemic recovery, but once again at two speeds: if the international luxury brands are running, many are the companies still struggling among SMEs. Then, one cannot overlook the alarming increases in costs: in addition to raw materials and transportation, high energy prices are putting companies' budgets at serious risk. Tensions are easing on the employment front, with a slight recovery in the number of employees and a collapse in the number of hours of CIG authorized; on the other hand, the number of active companies is almost stable (-15 units compared to December, between industry and crafts, -0.4 percent).