Italy's Economic Turnaround #finance #podcast

Italy-Germany 10-year spread has dropped below 1%. That's the kind of, that's the headline news. Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister, came in, it's been really pragmatic and, and actually just no nonsense, right? So cracking down on tax evasion. Also, the economy's been doing well. It's all this kind of stuff attracts in foreign investors. There's more risk appetite towards Italy cuz people are less concerned about that fiscal trajectory, right? So more, More investment comes in that benefits the economy. They've had things like VAT, VAT sales tax receipts have been way higher than people were forecasting when she came into office, right? And so this has all helped to feed into that deficit reduction. The S&P ratings agency have upgraded their debt rating, right? So whilst we talk about countries like the US and we're really concerned about debt sustainability, Italy are the opposite. Right now. And look, you've got rate cuts in from the ECB just helping in the mix, right? And actually the final point here, the finance ministry this week announced they've got so much excess cash from tax receipts, they're buying back €5 billion of debt.