Italy

Italy’s debt, the highest in the euro region last year, remains a “potential time bomb” and the country is at risk of default unless it boosts productivity, Capital Economics said, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. “We think the size of the government’s debts will eventually prompt the markets to turn their sights on Italy,” Capital Markets Managing Director Roger Bootle and chief European economist Jonathan Loynes said in a report today.

The auction of Italian fashion house Gianfranco Ferre, one of Milan's top designer names, was launched on Wednesday by the special commissioners running parent company IT Holding. A call for bids comes the day before the third anniversary of the death of Gianfranco Ferre, known for his signature "architectural" style in suits and jackets and his trademark white shirts. IT Holding went into administration in February 2009 after running out of cash. In a notice published in newspapers, the three overseers set a July 6 deadline to submit binding offers for Ferre and an Aug.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday that €24 billion (nearly $30 billion) in budget cuts aimed largely at its bloated bureaucracy are essential to restore confidence in the euro and to stop Italy living beyond its means, The Associated Press reported. Berlusconi's government bowed to market concerns about his country's high debt load and bloated public sector, springing the cuts on an unsuspecting public just weeks after ruling out painful measures. But Berlusconi said "this crisis is like no other," mandating significant and coordinated austerity measures.

The Italian government is asking citizens to make sacrifices to help get public finances in order and protect the country from the sort of market speculation that pushed Greece to the brink of bankruptcy, The Associated Press reported. The Cabinet meets later Tuesday in Rome to approve €24 billion ($30 billion) in hotly contested spending cuts in 2011-2012 which reportedly include pay freezes for most public workers - and cuts for those highest paid - and may see trims to the nation's revered health system.

The politician at the centre of Europe’s first big criminal trial of the credit crisis has urged banks to stop putting short-term gain ahead of long-term relationships with their customers. Ahead of Thursday’s opening of a trial against JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Deutsche Bank and Depfa, Letizia Moratti, mayor of Milan, rejected suggestions that Italy’s financial centre should have been a more sophisticated investor when dealing with derivatives, saying it had been duped.

Chrysler expects to report its first substantial monthly sales increase in the U.S. in more than two years Monday, but CEO Sergio Marchionne is shifting attention to Fiat, where problems are deepening, the Detroit Free Press reported. The European half of this new alliance is facing change nearly as wrenching as Chrysler's government-backed bankruptcy. Car sales in Italy are expected to fall about 15% this year because the government stopped paying consumers to replace dilapidated old vehicles.

An Italian court ruled Wednesday that Mariella Burani Fashion Group is insolvent and can be granted bankruptcy protection, a person with knowledge of the situation said. The court, based in the northern city of Reggio Emilia, where the beleaguered fashion group's headquarters are located, has also appointed a business accountant, Francesco Ruscigno, as the commissioner who will have to evaluate the economic situation of the company, the person told Dow Jones Newswires. Ruscigno will have 30 days to present a detailed report on the company to the Industry Ministry.

Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS AG and Hypo Real Estate Holding AG’s Depfa Bank Plc unit were charged with fraud linked to the sale of derivatives to the City of Milan, Bloomberg reported. Judge Simone Luerti scheduled the trial of the four firms, 11 bankers and two former city officials for May 6, Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said after a hearing in Milan today. The banks allegedly misled the city on swaps that adjusted interest payments on €1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) of borrowings.

Debt-laden Ireland is winning applause from financial markets for quickly taking the kind of harsh economic medicine that countries around the world are putting off, The Wall Street Journal reported. Late last year, Ireland looked a lot like Greece. The financial crisis coincided with a housing bust that left Ireland's banks in terrible shape, requiring a government rescue. Ireland's fiscal deficit rose to almost 12% of gross domestic product—a shade under Greece's 12.7%.

Derivative contracts taken out by Italian municipalities could jeopardize local public finances for decades, even though the global financial crisis has softened the blow in the short term, Italy's Audit Court said Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Certain debt and imbalances are magnified over time, and may wring sacrifices from future generations for 20 or even 30 years," Mario Ristuccia, the chief prosecutor of the administrative court, said in a speech delivered here.