By IANS/AKI,
Rome : Italy’s recent efforts to put its public finances on a healthier footing are falling short, according to the head of the Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi.
“The measures approved last summer to put public finances on more solid footing are not enough,” Draghi said during a speech in Rome Wednesday.
Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government early last month approved a package that is designed to cut 54 billion euros in spending and balance Italy’s budget in 2013.
Italy is the third richest nation among the 17 countries that use the euro currency and has a 1.9 trillion euro debt load making it Europe’s second most indebted country after Germany.
Its slow growth has prompted worries that it will have trouble paying its debt and could have to renegotiate terms of its payments, putting the future of the euro in doubt.
Italy must “drastically” cut its public debt, said Draghi, who next month takes over as governor of the European Central Bank.
He said Italy’s leaders must find a solution to “drastically” reduce the public debt and not wait for foreigners to save them from their own self-created difficulties.
“It’s important that everybody is fully convinced that only Italians can save the Italian economy,” said Draghi, speaking at World Economy 1861-2011, a conference commemorating the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.