Bank of Italy launches another alarm on the Italian economy. Governor Ignazio Visco, during the presentation of the book "The narrow path and beyond", by former Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan in collaboration with Dino Pesole, sank the blade into the management of Italian economic policy in recent years: " The economy runs real risks. In hindsight, perhaps the fiscal stance could have been more prudent."
Visco's fears come immediately after OECD freezing shower which sees Italy in a recession (at minus 0,2 percent for the whole of 2019) and Istat data on industrial production which indeed recorded a rebound of 1,7 percent in January compared to December, after four months of uninterrupted declines, but the average for the November-January quarter remains negative by 1,8 per cent compared to the previous three months. However, the attack is not only on this legislature, but Visco's call goes more generally on need in Italy for a structural tax reform forty years after the last speech: "I think it's time", instead of chasing after and still debating partial options such as "the 80 euros, the lowering of taxes for those who have an income below a certain amount and the flattening of labor taxes". In short, a radical reform instead of many incomplete remedies, among which basic income and early retirement must certainly be included.
The governor of the Bank of Italy, for weeks under pressure from the yellow-green majority, was instead cautious on the nomination dossier. "I have no doubts either about past governments or about this government: there is always respect for our autonomy". Visco then he did not evade the crucial issue of supervision of the credit system, the subject of repeated attacks by Northern League and grillini. "Bank of Italy, like a doctor, cannot prevent the disease, it can make it less strong and cure it, however the system has resisted". On the contrary, politics could have done better: "The Renzi and Gentiloni governments have completed the solution to the MPS crisis with difficulty and excessive slowness". The dig reached former prime minister Gentiloni, present at the debate, who also replied a little peevishly: "No one is infallible: even Bank of Italy makes mistakes."
