Seat Pagine Gialle SpA (PG), Italy’s largest phone-book publisher, may extend a proposal to restructure its debt to senior bondholders, two people familiar with the matter said, Bloomberg reported. The senior noteholders, who own about 750 million euros ($957 million) of Seat Pagine bonds, may be involved to broaden approval for the plan and avoid possible legal challenges from them, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

Angela Merkel has given effusive praise for the economic reforms introduced by Italy’s new government of technocrats, marking a clear seal of approval from the German government – in stark contrast to its long-standing doubts about the previous Italian administration, the Financial Times reported. Speaking after her first bilateral summit with Mario Monti, who succeeded Silvio Berlusconi as Italian prime minister in November, the German chancellor lauded the “extraordinarily important and remarkable measures” already taken by his technocratic administration.

The Italian government will not have to carry out an additional package of budget cutting measures to meet its goal of eliminating its deficit in 2013, Prime Minister Mario Monti said, Bloomberg reported. His government will now focus on producing a package of measures to spur economic growth and competitiveness in Italy to be presented before a meeting of European Union finance chiefs on Jan. 23, Monti said on the “Che Tempo Che Fa” talk show on state-owned RAI television.

Prime Minister Mario Monti yesterday presented in broad terms his government's master plan for Italy, which he called "Grow Italy," the New York Times reported today. Devised to spur growth in a country that has seen little of it in the past 15 years, the proposals would include liberalizing Italy's closed professions and guilds, encouraging competitiveness and modernizing the nation's outdated infrastructure. The government will also tackle labor reform, a thorny issue for labor unions as well as for some political parties that support Monti's government.

Financial market pressure on Italy eased temporarily on Wednesday, with borrowing rates on some government-issued debt dropping by half. But the political pressure on the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti remained high — and was rising, the New York Times reported Wednesday. Last week, Mr. Monti won final approval of a $40 billion spending package that includes tax increases and a pension change aimed at eliminating Italy's budget deficit by 2013.

Italy's Senate voted overwhelmingly to give final approval yesterday to a $40 billion austerity and growth package aimed at eliminating Italy’s budget deficit by 2013 and stimulating the economy as part of a broader plan to stabilize the euro, the New York Times reported today.

The foundation that owns 49 percent of Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena said on Monday it had reached two debt standstill agreements with its own lenders as it tries to keep control of Italy's third-largest bank, Reuters reported. The foundation is expected to sell assets as part of a debt restructuring deal, with the sale of a stake of 10-15 percent in Monte Paschi seen as one possibility.

Telling Italians that the fate of their country and the euro was at stake, Prime Minister Mario Monti unveiled a radical and ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases on Sunday, including deeply unpopular moves like raising the country’s retirement age, the International Herald Tribune reported. The measures are meant to slash the cost of government, combat tax evasion and step up economic growth, so the country can eliminate its budget deficit by 2013. Mr.

Seat Pagine Gialle, the indebted Italian directories group that publishes the country’s Yellow Pages, saw its shares fall by more than 16 per cent after it secured a further 14 day extension to agree the terms of its financial restructuring with its debt and equity holders to avoid administration, the Financial Times reported. The publisher’s bondholders and shareholders last month agreed to convert €1.2bn ($1.6bn) of the company’s debt into equity but talks have stumbled over the conversion price.

Italian directory firm Seat Pagine Gialle will not pay a 52 million euro coupon on its 1.3 billion euro subordinated Lighthouse bond on Wednesday, it said late on Tuesday, Reuters reported on an International Financing Review story. The company's board is now asking Lighthouse bondholders to agree to postpone the coupon until mid December, after discussions between stakeholders failed to result in a consensual restructuring, Seat PG said in a statement.