Spread weighs on banks, households - BoI

(see related stories on govt's budget plans) (ANSA) - Rome, October 9 - Bank of Italy Deputy Director General Luigi Federico Signorini warned on Tuesday that rises in Italy's bond spread have a real impact on Italian households and businesses. "Around two thirds of Italy's public debt is held by Italian individuals and institutions, but that does not isolate it from the logic of the market, which seeks value and flees from uncertainty," Signorini told a parliamentary hearing on the government's DEF economic blueprint. "Oscillations in its value also have effects on the Italian individuals, families, companies and financial institutions that hold it".
    Signorini added that reducing the gap in Italy's growth rates with the rest of Europe was a "fundamental objective" while adding that it was necessary to bring the debt-to-GDP ratio "under control" too. "More substantial growth and greater social cohesion are not in contrast with budget discipline," he said. Signorini also said that it was "fundamentally important" not to undo recent reforms that have made Italy's pension system more sustainable.