Luigi Federico Signorini: Preliminary hearing on the Update to the 2018 Economic and Financial Document

Testimony of Mr Luigi Federico Signorini, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy, at the Joint Session of the Fifth Committees of the Chamber of Deputies (Budget, Treasury and Planning) and of the Senate of the Republic (Economic Planning and Budget), Chamber of Deputies, Rome, 9 October 2018.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Mr President, Honourable Members of Parliament,

I wish to thank the Fifth Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Italian Senate for once again giving the Bank of Italy this opportunity to provide its technical assessment as part of the consultations on the Update to the Economic and Financial Document.

1 The macroeconomic outlook

Following the severe crisis of 2008-13, the Italian economy has been recovering for the past five years. Last year GDP growth came to 1.6 per cent, with contributions from all the components of demand, domestic and foreign. In 2018, notwithstanding the overall solidity of domestic demand, the pace of growth gradually moderated, affected above all by the slowdown in world trade. Sales outside the EU nonetheless turned upwards again in August. Fears of a further spike in trade tensions appear to have dented the confidence of firms at international level and risk affecting economic activity even beyond the direct impact on trade of the protectionist measures implemented to date. The situation remains uncertain; the Italian economy is very open to foreign trade and is therefore exposed to the related risks.