Meloni must reassure investors on debt, Visco tells FT

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 8 - A recent surge in the government's borrowing costs is a reflection of concerns about the growth of the economy in the long term, Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday.
    "I don't think it is speculation against the country. I think it is basically a concern about . . . the long-term potential growth rate of the economy," said Visco, who ends his mandate as the head of Italy's central bank at the end of October.
    Last week the yield on Italy's benchmark 10-year BTP bond yield rose to almost 5% for the first time since Europe's sovereign debt crisis from 2009 to 2012.
    The paper also recalled how markets reacted badly when Rome in its NADEF update to its DEF economic and financial blueprint last month raised the country's planned fiscal deficit for this year from 4.5% of GDP to 5.3% and for 2024 from 3.7% to 4.3%, as well as revising downwards the growth forecast for both years.
    Visco said these trends shows that investors "are insuring themselves" against weak long-term growth prospects and high debt.
    There are a number of things Italy can do to bolster growth, Visco told the Financial Times, such as supporting female employment by allowing children to be in school for the whole day, better integrating immigrants into the workforce and improving training in digital skills.
    He also said the Bank of Italy was "not consulted" by the government before it introduced the controversial windfall tax on banks' extra profits, adding that the changes made to the decree during its conversion into law by parliament "go in the right direction". (ANSA).