The Italian parliament has given its final approval to a highly contested bill to promote competition in product and services markets, required to help secure a new tranche worth 19 billion euros ($19.4 billion) of post-pandemic European funds, Reuters reported. The reform championed by the outgoing government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi has triggered protests from lobby groups, especially taxi drivers who were against opening up their sector to broader competition including from multinationals.
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Italy is preparing a new stimulus decree worth up to 13 billion euros ($13.3 billion) to help families and firms deal with a surge in electricity, gas and petrol costs, deputy Economy Minister Laura Castelli said on Monday, Reuters reported. The new scheme, which comes on top of some 33 billion euros already budgeted since January, is expected to be one of the last major acts by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who last week resigned paving the way for a snap national election on Sept. 25.
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Debt-laden Italy finds itself in markets' crosshairs again, as the prospect of a collapse in its national unity government coincides with the European Central Bank preparing to deliver its first interest rate rise in 11 years, Reuters reported. Like other indebted eurozone countries, Italy has spent the past few years when cash was cheap and plentiful trying to reduce its vulnerability to rising rates and market panic. But it is more exposed to increasing borrowing costs than it might appear, according to a Reuters review of its debt profile.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s offer to resign has sent unsettling ripples through financial markets, bringing back bad memories of Europe’s debt crisis a decade ago and complicating the European Central Bank’s job as it raises interest rates for the first time in 11 years to combat record inflation, the Associated Press reported. Draghi, a former ECB president, has pushed policies meant to keep Italy’s high levels of debt manageable and boost growth in Europe’s third-largest economy.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is expected to offer his resignation after the Five Star Movement, a key member of his coalition, went ahead with its threat to boycott a confidence vote on the government, triggering political turmoil, Bloomberg News reported. The party led by former premier Giuseppe Conte, the second-biggest group in parliament, announced in the Rome Senate that it would stay away later Thursday from the vote on an aid package for businesses and households hit by high energy prices.
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Rising interest rates in Europe are making investors worry about an old ghost haunting Italy’s banks: the “doom loop,” the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Central Bank is expected to unveil a special bond buying program later this month to shield highly indebted eurozone economies—and their banks—from rising borrowing costs. The “anti-fragmentation” program is a response to a widening of bond yields in Italy in particular and a punishing selloff in bank stocks in the eurozone’s third largest economy.
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Telecom Italia (TIM) is looking to fetch a valuation of at least 25 billion euros ($26 billion) including debt for its grid under a plan to separate its fixed-line assets from its services arm, Reuters reported. The price tag is closer to the 31 billion euro figure sought by TIM's top shareholder Vivendi in any potential network deal than initial estimates provided by two sources in line with analysts estimates. In May sources had told Reuters TIM has started looking at a valuation of around 20 billion euros, including debt and before any synergies, in a potential network deal.
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Italy expects to attract at least two rival bids for ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, before the deadline for its part privatisation expires at midnight on Monday, Reuters reported. Shipping group MSC, which is working with Germany's Lufthansa, is seen as the leading candidate, but a consortium comprising U.S. private equity fund Certares, Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines Inc is also expected to make a competitive offer.
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Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Wednesday he was confident Moscow's demand that European buyers pay for Russian gas in roubles will not lead to a disruption of supplies, Reuters reported. The European Commission has warned that complying with Russia's scheme might breach EU sanctions, but Draghi said it was a "grey zone" with no official ruling on the matter. Speaking during a visit to the United States, Draghi said he was "quite confident" about the supply situation for "a silly reason" that there was a lack of clarity on the rules after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.
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