Italy: Selected Issues

IMF Staff Country Reports, September 27, 2013

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Italy: Selected Issues

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Bibliographic details

• Published: September 27, 2013
• Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484386255.002

Summary of main findings

• Presents Italy’s economic growth through innovation and reforms.
• Highlights that Italy’s future competitiveness depends on the institutional and macroeconomic conditions that allow productive firms to:
  • innovate,
  • expand, and
  • attract inward foreign direct investment (FDI).
• Stresses that achieving these outcomes will require the successful implementation of the authorities’ full structural- and institutional-reform agenda.
• Focuses on the enforcement of civil and commercial claims in Italy as a key way to improve the environment for sustaining economic growth.
• Notes considerable interest in the possibility of introducing a comprehensive wealth tax in Italy, reflecting public resistance to spending-only austerity.

Key themes and policy implications

• Institutional and macroeconomic conditions:
  • Strengthening institutions and macroeconomic frameworks is central to enabling firm-level innovation and expansion.
  • Reforms should aim to improve conditions for productive firms to attract inward FDI.
• Enforcement of civil and commercial claims:
  • Improving enforcement is identified as a key mechanism to bolster the business environment and sustain growth.
• Fiscal policy and public sentiment:
  • Public resistance to spending-only austerity has driven interest in exploring a comprehensive wealth tax.

Subject coverage and keywords

• Subject areas: Distressed assets, Financial institutions, Financial sector policy and analysis, Nonperforming loans, Property tax, Public financial management (PFM), Tax expenditures, Taxes, Transaction tax.
• Keywords: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, bank ownership, bank performance, bank recapitalization effort, court fee, CR, Distressed assets, Europe, Global, ISCR, Nonperforming loans, privatized bank, Property tax, tax expenditure, Tax expenditures, Transaction tax, write-off rate.

Content in this bundle

• Italy: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report 13/299; September 6, 2013
  • Italy: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report 13/299; September 6, 2013 (Markdown version)
  • Italy: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report 13/299; September 6, 2013 (PDF)