Italy needs 20 yrs to return to pre-crisis jobless-IMF (3)

(ANSA) - New York, July 27 - The International Monetary Fund said Monday that it will probably take two decades for Italy to get its unemployment rate down to pre-crisis levels.
    "Without a significant acceleration of growth rates, it will take Spain 10 years and Portugal and Italy almost 20 years to reduce the unemployment rate to pre-crisis levels," the IMF said in a report on the eurozone. Italian unemployment has almost doubled since the start of the global economic crisis in 2008 and is currently at 12.4%, having peaked at 13% last year. The IMF added that Italy should "adopt and implement" Premier Matteo Renzi's government's planned civil-service reform, adding that this should feature measures on the provision of local services, competitions for public contracts and the management of human resources.