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Italian Economy and Culture Essay example

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Italy Economy
Italy is a country facing economic and political upheaval. With a Parliament pressing hard to pass reforms designed ultimately for leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Italy is in fact a country in economic turmoil. If we evaluate the state of the economy, it does leave little room to deny this current economic crisis has been years in the making. So now, it will be left to a new Prime Minister to solve financial problems decades in the making that are central to the debt crisis now dragging down the European -- and the global --economies. Just this month we have witnessed, hundreds of protesters, most of them young people, demonstrating outside the Treasury Ministry building, protesters were …show more content…

However, the government has so far failed to introduce the structural reforms needed to boost Italy's growth -- now estimated to be around 1.0% this year.
Italy’s debt stands at 1.9 trillion EU ($2.6 trillion US), or 120% of gross domestic product. Compare that to the combined Greece, Ireland and Portugal’s debt – around 640 billion as at full year 2010, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Italy faces around 380 billion in bond repayments and deficit costs by the end of 2012, according to Evolution Securities' analyst Elisabeth Afseth. Its next major payment is 26 billion, due in February next year. With its funding costs now over 7%, that could prove a huge hurdle.
The oft-quoted 7% figure is, by and large, arbitrary. It is regarded as the level at which countries can no longer fund themselves - but depends on how long it stays at that level and how much the country needs to raise. Italy, ministers are scheduled to sign off on a package of tax increases and spending cuts in the upcoming weeks. Some of the expected measures include an increase in the retirement age for many workers, a hike in income tax for higher income brackets and new taxes on private assets and housing. The measures come at the start of one of the most crucial weeks since the creation of the single currency more than a decade ago with European leaders

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