Firstly, it is worth emphasizing that, against the backdrop of the socio-economic and energy crisis that has hit most of the Countries and Regions in which we operate, the Group has increased its value distributed by about 1.0 billion euros (+6%) and therefore reduced its ability to retain the value created (30% to 28%). More specifically, the contribution to communities has significantly increased (+33%), also in correlation to the introduction of regulatory and fiscal measures that have impacted on the Group’s financial performance, especially in Europe. However, the liability management operations undertaken to optimize the cost of financial debt have helped reduce payments to lenders.
Lastly, the distribution of value to employees has increased by 7.5%. This increase is mainly due to the fact that inflation was much higher in 2022 than in the previous year.