Innovation 8. A long-standing problem whose importance has increased in Italy in the more recent decades is the very low level of spending in research and development (R&D).
The latest figures indicate that, in 2018, R&D expenditure as a share of GDP stood at just 1.4 per cent, against 2.4 per cent in the average of the OECD countries, and less than half of the level recorded in advanced economies like the United States and Germany (slide 2).