[金融要聞][轉錄] 衰弱的義大利 20080730

義大利在歐元區的經濟成長一直是落後的，當然他們之前享受過了加入歐元區的好處，但是使用共同的通貨同時失去了自主性的貨幣政策，在面對通膨與成長時，便會使某一些國家受傷。
義大利的輿論是有一些脫離歐元區的聲音出來，但是政治上目前還沒有看到支持，我想至少在短期內可能性還是不高的。


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/30/cnemu130.xml

Growth slump may force Italy out of eurozone

Italy is sliding into a deep structural crisis and risks being forced out of Europe's monetary union as the region's economic downturn gathers pace, according to a new report by Capital Economics.

Over the last decade, the country has failed to reform its labour product markets sufficiently to cope with the rigours of euro membership and is now caught in a spiral of decline as the working population starts to shrink. Productivity growth has slowed to 0.5pc a year.

"An ugly combination of weak GDP growth, poor international competitiveness, and rising government borrowing costs could lead to renewed calls for Italy to leave the euro," said the report, written by Julian Jessop and Roger Bootle.

"As things stand, not only will Italy lose ground to the rest of the eurozone, it could soon start to do so at an even more rapid rate," they said.

Italy has lost roughly 40pc in labour competitiveness against Germany since 1995, according to Eurostat data.

Capital Economics said Italy - now on the cusp of its fourth recession this decade - faces a "demographic time bomb" as the workforce starts to shrink at an accelerating rate over the next 30 years, making it ever harder to finance the biggest national debt in Europe (107pc of GDP).

There is a risk that the spreads between German Bunds and Italian 10-year bonds could widen quickly from 58 basis points today to over 100 if the question of euro membership creeps back onto the table.

Italy set off a minor scare in mid-2005 when two cabinet ministers from the radical Northern League called for a return to the lira. It was suggested that the political pain threshold in a major economic crisis may be lower than widely assumed.

The country regained momentum during the final upswing of the global credit boom, helped by Fiat's remarkable comeback. This has entirely faded. "Italy's upswing has unravelled at an alarming pace," said the report.

Business confidence has fallen to the lowest since October 2001, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The country is disproportionately hit by the high euro because it relies heavily on "mid-tech" exports that compete toe-to-toe with Asian goods.

Italy can at least take some comfort that other euro members are feeling the strain too, reducing the risk of EMU break-up. France's Insee consumer confidence plunged to a 21-year low in July.

The epicentre of the unfolding crisis is Spain, where the number of houses built this year is expected to collapse by half from the 760,000 constructed in 2007 at the peak of the bubble. Spanish unemployment is rising by almost 70,000 a month, touching 10.6pc at the end of the fourth quarter. However, Spain has a much small public debt than Italy.

Most studies on the risk of an EMU break-up conclude that it cannot occur because the costs would be too high. But this overlooks that markets could set in motion a chain of events that forces a country to leave.