Italexit could DESTROY Eurozone: Expert’s stark warning to EU amid rocky Italy relations
AN ITALIAN exit from the European Union would be “a shock for the entire eurozone” that would “threaten its survival”, a top financial expert has warned.
By VICKIIE OLIPHANT
Express.co.uk
Mon, May 8, 2017
Italy has been one of the European Union’s financial weak links for years thanks to bad loans racking up enormous debts.
The state’s GDP is barely higher than when the single currency was formed in 2000 and its working age unemployment rate currently stands at 12 per cent.
And while the economy grew 0.9 per cent last year, the International Monetary Fund warned it will not return to pre-crisis levels for another decade.
Now Giuseppe Vegas, the president of stock market regulator CONSOB, claimed Italy must prepare itself for the tightening of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy.
More than two years ago, the ECB carried out a comprehensive assessment of the euro area’s 130 largest banking groups – 15 of which are Italian.
But nine failed the exam, including the country’s oldest bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), and a further four were still being undercapitalised.
And the ECB was forced to act, forcing banks to find fresh capital amid other similar initiatives designed to boost the failing economy.
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