Salvatore Rossi: Italian companies and banks in the new global challenges

Introductory speech by Mr Salvatore Rossi, Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy and President of the Institute for the Supervision of Insurance (IVASS), at a round table on "Italian companies and banks in the new global challenges", organized by the Italian Banking Association (ABI) and the General Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria), in collaboration with the Institute of International Finance (IIF), at the Italian Embassy, Washington DC, 21 April 2017.

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

Central bank speech  | 
25 April 2017

I would like to thank the organizers of this conference on the Italian economy for inviting me to open the discussion. My thanks also go to Ambassador Varricchio for hosting us in such a beautiful venue, and for his kind words of welcome.

Today's conference centres around three words - companies, banks and global challenges - which, in my view, are the key elements for understanding the dismal growth performance of our economy since the late nineties, its exceptional difficulties during the double recession, its recent recovery, and its prospects for the future. 

In my remarks I will start by mentioning one important challenge that the whole advanced world is facing, and which affects our economy too: policy uncertainty. I will then focus on the Italian economy, looking at it from a longer perspective. Finally, I will touch on the Italian banks.