Giovanni Tria, the touted new Italian
economy minister, is lukewarm on the euro but is against leaving
it, according to an interview he gave to financial daily Il Sole
24 Ore last year written with former Berlusconi finance minister
Renato Brunetta, another economist.
"Those who evoke leaving the euro without ifs and buts as a
panacea for all out ills are nor right," said Tria, 70, dean of
the economics faculty of Rome's Tor Vergata University.
But those who say the euro is irreversible are not right
either, he said.
Tria said shared solutions have to be sought because leaving
the euro on your own "means paying only costs without benefits".
This position, analysts said, would make him more acceptable
to President Sergio Mattarella than the Euroskeptic economist
the presdient rejected as economy minister on Sunday, Paolo
Savona.
Tria is also in favour of a flat tax, one of the key policies
of the possible new government, but only after raising VAT rates
first.
The Roman-born economist has said he is skeptical about the
boost to the economy a flat tax theoretically makes, so
alternative sources of revenue would be needed to make up for
the shortfall.
Tria has had posts in academe and the public and private
sector since graduating in law from Rome's la Sapienza
University in 1971, according to a long CV.
Among other things, he has been head of the national school
of administration, member of the Italian economics society,
member of the American Economic Association, Italian government
delegate on the Board of directors of the International Labour
Office.
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