IMF Staff Country Reports

This Selected Issues paper for Italy presents updated estimates of potential growth for Italy, using new techniques that draw on co-movements of output, employment, and inflation over the business cycle to distinguish trends from cycles. The paper provides an assessment of an area—corporate governance—that has important implications not only for trend growth but also for macrofinancial developments. The paper reviews developments in fiscal federalism in Italy and draws on cross-country experience to offer suggestions on how the decentralization process now under way can be most effectively managed.