Italy

Italy is likely to join the elite club of euro-zone countries not subject to fiscal sanctions, but Rome has no room to loosen its purse strings to boost economic growth, international officials said on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Italy brought its budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product last year, which makes it likely that Rome will exit the European Union's strictures on its policy as long as it can show how the achievement is sustainable, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said in Brussels after meeting with new Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

France and Italy presented a united front Wednesday on the eurozone debt crisis amid deepening divisions over belt-tightening policies in the European Union as some countries reach breaking point, Agence France-Presse reported. French President Francois Hollande met Italy's brand new Prime Minister Enrico Letta, in Paris only days after he took office, and warned that austerity alone was "no longer enough", stressing the need for a focus on growth.

Prosecutors in Italy are seeking to seize 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion) of assets from Nomura Holdings Inc. as part of an investigation into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA’s use of derivatives to hide losses. Sadeq Sayeed, Nomura’s former European head, and Raffaele Ricci, a managing director in fixed-income sales, are also being probed for colluding to obstruct regulators and making false statements, prosecutors in Siena, where the bank is based, said in a statement today.

Rising and volatile Italian government bond spreads caught domestic banks off guard and caused a credit crunch in the euro-zone's third-largest economy in late 2011, the International Monetary Fund concludes in a new study, The Wall Street Journal reported. Banks with lower capital levels and higher rates of nonperforming loans suffered the most, while Italy's sovereign borrowing costs reacted significantly to the scale of foreign ownership, said the technical working paper from Edda Zoli, a senior economist in the IMF's European department.

A group of Italian investors is ready to stump up over 100 million euros to take control of small cooperative lender Banca Popolare di Spoleto, which was put under special administration this year, Reuters reported. The Clitumnus group of investors said on Tuesday it would underwrite a capital increase of up to 102 million euros. Shares in Popolare Spoleto, in which Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena has a 29.5 percent stake, closed up 3.2 percent at 1.85 euros after the offer by Clitumnus. Clitumnus offered in January to buy a 51 percent stake for 2.10 euros per share.

Italian real estate management company Prelios said on Wednesday it approved a 561 million euro ($717 million) debt restructuring plan, as well as a 185 million euros capital increase, Reuters reported. The heavily indebted company manages properties in Italy and Germany and has been hit hard by writedowns on real estate investments in its recession-hit home market. Prelios said its net loss for 2012 was 241.7 million euros, compared to a loss of 289.6 million euros in 2011, as a result of real estate writedowns and restructuring costs.

European leaders demanded that euro members press on with budget cuts to end the debt crisis as Italy edged closer to a new election after an anti-austerity vote last week resulted in political deadlock, Bloomberg reported. Finance ministers from the 17-member single-currency bloc meet in Brussels today to discuss issues including a bailout for Cyprus. In Rome, a top aide to Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani said the country may need to hold another election this year after passing new electoral laws.

An Italian political crisis that has rattled the euro zone deepened on Wednesday when two party leaders ruled out the most likely options to form a government and avoid a new election, Reuters reported. Populist leader Beppe Grillo slammed the door on overtures from centre-left boss Pier Luigi Bersani with a stream of insults while Nichi Vendola, Bersani's junior coalition partner, ruled out a government alliance with the centre-right.

Italy's political parties began testing the waters Tuesday to see whether they could cobble together a government, as the prospect of political stalemate sent European markets tumbling in fear of a reawakened euro-zone debt crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. Democratic Party chief Pier Luigi Bersani said he would try to form a government in the hope of cobbling together some sort of parliamentary support. Mr. Bersani's center-left coalition will hold a majority of seats in Italy's lower house, but will control about one-third of the seats in the Senate.

Italian voters delivered a rousing anti-austerity message and a strong rebuke to the existing political order in national elections on Monday that threatened to plunge the country into political paralysis after early results failed to produce a clear winner, the International Herald Tribune reported.