- but strength has helped pushed inflation too low
Nothing new in the mantra from Bank of Italy gov. at the BOI annual meeting.
- ECB determined to act to ensure price stability
- Eurozone needs more integration, “a true common project”
- ECB should counter excessive low inflation with firmness
For “firmness” I guess we need to assume “action”
We’ll see soon enough next week. EURUSD still going nowhere in a hurry at 1.3606
On Italy:
- Italy’s exit from recession is “laborious”
- recovery is fragile and uncertain, needs investment
- Italy has lost 15% of manufacturing capacity since 2008, investment as proportion of GDP hit post-war low in 2013
- BOI ready to adopt measures to improve banks’ liquidity so they can increase lending to firms
- Italian banks must take action to dispose of bad loans may be interest from foreign and domestic investors