Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco
said Tuesday that there were several good signs for Italy's
economic outlook even though growth was slowing.
He added, however, that Italy would be more vulnerable if
there were a new economic crisis than it was 10 years ago.
The governor told the assembly of banking association ABI
that the Italian economy was slowing "along with the other main
economies", saying that "deceleration signals spread to the
spring".
He said the positive signals included "household and business
confidence that remains high", an increase in bank lending and
an "improvement in the labour market".
But Visco also bemoaned the fact that "in Italy the reform
path has lost momentum due to fears about the costs, which are
often immediate, and doubts about the benefits, which mature
gradually and in relatively long periods of time.
"In these conditions, faced with a new crisis, today we would
be much more vulnerable than we were 10 years ago...
"In Italy and in Europe the reforms launched to reduce the
fragility highlighted by the crisis are still to be completed".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA