Italy Payments Industry Forecast Snapshot: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Sector Impact

Italy Payments Industry Forecast Snapshot: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Sector Impact

Summary

The Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak, dubbed COVID-19, is first and foremost a human tragedy, affecting millions of people globally. The contagious Coronavirus, which broke out at the close of 2019, has led to a medical emergency across the world, with the World Health Organization officially declaring the novel Coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

Italy is among the worst affected countries. Overall, 105,792 confirmed cases have been reported in the country, of which 15,729 have recovered. The Italian death toll rose to 12,428 as of April 1, 2020, the highest number recorded in the world so far.

It is very likely that the number of cases in Italy will increase even more, reaching the hundreds of thousands. Italy has adopted measures that are almost as stringent as those implemented by the Chinese government in Wuhan, with almost the entire country being in lockdown - schools, universities, and sports centers have all closed in response to the crisis.

This report focuses on the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on both the economyand the cards and payments industry in Italy. Based on our proprietary datasets, the snapshotprovides a detailed comparison between pre-COVID-19 forecasts andrevised forecasts of total payment card, debit card, and credit and charge card transactions by value and volume. It also offers information on measures taken by the government to combat Coronavirus.

Scope

- Economic growth in Italy is expected to register a dip in the first quarter of 2020. The real GDP growth rate for Italy is expected to enter negative growth this year, meaning one of the largest economies in the eurozone is almost certainly in recession already.
- Cash has historically been the preferred mode of payments in Italy and is at the heart of the Italian economy, accounting for 78.5% of the total payment transaction volume in 2019. This is rapidly changing due to the outbreak.
- While there will be a rise in debit and credit card transactions at the cost of a decline in cash, the overall impact on electronic payments in Italy will be negative, as consumers will spend less overall, preferring to focus on essentials to ride out the lockdown.

Reasons to Buy

- Make strategic decisions using top-level revised forecast data on the Italian payment industry.
- Understand the key market trends, challenges, and opportunities in the Italian cards and payments industry.
- Receive a comprehensive insight into payments market in Italy.