International Monetary Fund: Spend Better, Make Infrastructure Investments

Governments must learn to spend available resources better. This is the key message of the latest Fiscal Monitor by the International Monetary Fund. At a time when public budgets are weighed down by debt, and wars and energy crises contribute to rising state expenditure, the IMF urges governments to redirect public spending towards what generates real economic growth: infrastructure above all, followed by education, healthcare, and innovation.

Not a generic call for austerity, but a message of efficiency: every euro invested must produce value, and infrastructure — both physical and social — is the most powerful engine for restarting GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

According to the report, in fact, an increase in infrastructure investment equal to 1% of GDP (while keeping total spending unchanged) leads to long-term GDP growth of 1.5% for advanced economies, which rises to 3.5% for emerging and developing countries.

A message launched precisely because — again according to the International Monetary Fund — in Europe, the share of public spending allocated to productive investment (which today represents about 50% of GDP) is in decline. Too much current spending, too little structural spending.

The IMF’s message is as much economic as it is political: at a time when global growth is slowing and inequalities are rising, only infrastructure funds can restore competitiveness and confidence to advanced countries.

In Europe, over 300 billion dollars a year are currently invested in transport infrastructure, a figure set to grow to 370 billion by 2030. These numbers reflect a push towards sustainable mobility, digital connectivity, and the energy transition.

The Next Generation EU, with its massive funding plan, has already allocated almost 40% of resources to the infrastructure projects of the continent: high-speed rail lines, roads, ports, and smart electrical grids.

A collective drive that Italy, too, has embraced, because building infrastructure means building the future. Not only because roads, high-speed railways, or dams reduce time and transport costs, but because they generate trust. Behind every bridge or tunnel lies a collective investment that sets in motion skills, industry, and innovation. This is the “invisible multiplier” that economists and urban planners refer to — the social and productive impact of major works.

In Italy, this is visible in territories transformed by infrastructure investment, both built and under construction:

• the new metro systems of Naples, Milan and Rome, which encourage sustainable transportation;
• the high-speed rail lines under construction in the South, linking Campania with Puglia and Campania with Calabria;
• record-breaking tunnels such as the Brenner Base Tunnel, which will become the longest railway tunnel in the world;
• landmark projects like the construction of the Strait of Messina Bridge.

Confirming this, the impact of infrastructure on local economies was recently the subject of a scientific study titled “Increasing Accessibility through Public Transport Improves Local Economy: The Effect of a New Metro Line in Rome,” conducted by a team of scholars from the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Rome, the Enrico Fermi Research Centre, and Sapienza University.

With figures to hand, the study demonstrates that well-being, as well as jobs, have increased near the stations of Line C (built by Metro C, the Consortium led by Webuild and Vianini Lavori, and still under development). Specifically, from 2019 to date, right near the subway stations, the number of economic activities (mainly shops, restaurants, bars, etc.) has increased from 1 to 9%, 5,000 additional jobs have been generated, and an extra €60 million in GDP.

The Rome Metro Line C is one of those projects that the Webuild Group, one of the world leaders in the construction of complex infrastructure, is currently building and will build in the future, and is currently involved in numerous construction sites spread across the entire Italian territory.

The very story of Italy — its past and present, but above all how infrastructure construction has shaped the social and economic growth of the country (a message similar to that launched by the International Monetary Fund) — is at the heart of the Evolutio exhibition, conceveid and organised by Webuild Group at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome.

In one of the symbolic places of peace and progress of ancient Rome, the Group recounts 120 years of infrastructure as the driving force behind the evolution of peoples and territories. This is achieved through an immersive, multimedia exhibition designed as a journey through time: from the dams that brought water and energy, to the bridges that united regions and people, to the metro systems and major green transportation projects that are reshaping the cities of the future.

The rooms come alive with light, images, and sound. There is a sense of continuous motion: the idea that every piece of infrastructure is part of a living organism, breathing and growing alongside people.

The International Monetary Fund calls on governments to redirect spending towards infrastructure that generates value. With Evolutio, Webuild shows what happens when such infrastructure becomes reality: economies restart, regions are reconnected, people benefiting from better standards of living.