Fabio Panetta: Monetary policy in the euro area - past, present and near future

Speech by Mr Fabio Panetta, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy, at the conference "A Future for Europe", held in memory of Giacomo Vaciago and organised by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the Associazione per lo Sviluppo degli Studi di Banca e Borsa (ASSBB), Milan, 6 April 2018.

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

1. Introduction

The figure of Giacomo Vaciago is part of our country's recent history. Following his studies at the Catholic University of Milan and at Oxford, Giacomo was a Professor of Economics at Ancona and then Professor of Political Economy and Monetary Economics at the Catholic University of Milan. In 2016 the Catholic University awarded him the title of Emeritus Professor, closing the circle that began with his graduation in 1964. The strength of Giacomo's commitment to society and its institutions is well-known: columnist for the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore from 1983; advisor to the Minister for the Treasury (1987-1989) and to the Prime Minister (1992-1993); Mayor of Piacenza (1994-1998); advisor to the Ministry of Art and Culture (2003-2005) and to the Minister of Labour and Social Policies (2014-2016).

Giacomo was a committed European. His last book, Un'anima per l'Europa (A soul for Europe), posed some key questions about the future of the Union. Four years ago he urged Europeans to 'pool their virtues rather than their vices' - something they had often done in the past - and his words still hold true today.

But first and foremost, Giacomo was a friend I had the good fortune to work with on several occasions. Our conversations were an opportunity to look more closely at problems and analyse them rigorously, but also a way to defuse situations, tongue-in-cheek.