Economy Minister Giovanni Tria “said the things he probably they were said a month ago, this it would have prevented the spread from rising and the stock market from falling". So Carlo Messina, managing director and CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, commented on the latest statements by the minister on the sidelines of the conference organized by the bank in Turin and dedicated to growing bancassurance business. So minister promoted on the priority of not increasing the public debt, even if he should have - according to Messina - thrown water on the fire well before and we will still have to wait for the practical act: "We have to wait for the financial maneuver to demonstrate that we are serious with maneuvers to reduce debt and accelerate growth”. Indirectly, a very clear message to the new government: without hedging and continuing to announce measures without dispelling doubts about a possible public deficit spending that would increase public debt, investors flee. And if the spread goes up, then it will be more difficult to refinance on the market. Especially starting from the end of the year, when the ECB's quantitative easing will end.
"The end of the Quantitative Easing program is objectively a very serious element of tension - Messina said speaking to journalists - which must be submitted to those who will have to work on the next financial law, but precisely for this reason, I repeat, one should never, ever imagine increasing public debt. This would be the condition to put savers in difficulty and accelerate the spread. In a virtuous path of debt reduction, the spread will tend to decrease. Today the differential with respect to Spain, Greece and other countries is completely unfounded, there is a total disconnect between the spread and the strength of the real economy”.
Messina then answered questions on the reforms announced by the government: while Minister Tria declared a welcome war on debt, solutions still remain in the field which instead would involve non-negligible costs, starting with the flat tax: "I deal with banks I'm not a tax expert. However, I can say that, if it is possible to do so without increasing the public debt, which remains the priority, A reduction in the tax burden would not hurt to relaunch household consumption and business investment”, said the CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, giving a signal of openness towards a possible tax relief, albeit contested by many due to its size and the non-progressiveness of the rates.
Finally, the number one of Intesa Sanpaolo intervened in the Eurizon case, the sale of which, as described so far, is "fake news, we want to grow. There will be no disposal of an asset management stake unless aimed at becoming even bigger. Our project - he reiterated - is not to reduce ourselves, therefore the search for an alliance with a large international operator continues but the condition is to have the majority, we will never find ourselves in a position to see the savings of Italians as others have done”.
