Il quotidiano commenta la relazione di Mario Draghi
Italy follows Argentina down road to ruin
By Desmond Lachman
Published: March 16 2006 20:14 | Last updated: March 16 2006 20:14
An irony of Italy's unfolding political and economic drama is that many of the current holders of the country's bloated and ever-increasing government debt were once proud holders of Argentina's now-defaulted sovereign bonds. As Mario Draghi, Italy's new central bank governor, warns that the Italian economy has "run aground", and as prime minister Silvio Berlusconi vents about "the euro having been a disaster for Italy" in the run-up to next month's election, one has to wonder at what stage Italy's bondholders will get the feeling that they have been to this sad movie before.
For quite aside from Italy's disturbing political and institutional weaknesses – as exemplified by the current fractious and polemical election campaign and by yet another big banking scandal that further besmirches the Italian financial system's reputation – the country's economic predicament is remarkably similar to that of Argentina in the late 1990s. Mr Draghi himself implicitly recognises this similarity when he asserts that Italy must improve its productivity performance if it is to have any hope of reversing the country's relative decline.