Ambassador Terracciano on Bloomberg TV “The Pulse”.
Ambassador Paquale Terracciano intervened this morning on “The Pulse”, a Bloomberg TV programme presented by anchor Francine L’Acqua. The main issues covered were the current state of Italian banks, Brexit and the Italian constitutional referendum.
While discussing about the Italian banking system, the Ambassador highlighted how “the situation is rapidly improving as the market recovers from the burden of non performing loans”, whereas in regards to the real dimension of the NPL burden, Ambassador Terracciano clarified that the net amount of “bad loans” is €85 and not €365 billion, as has been reported, in comparison to €122 billion which is available as counterweight to this burden.
On Brexit, echoing PM Renzi’s declarations to BBC News yesterday, the Ambassador reinforced Italy’s desire to ensure the best possible relations with the UK in the aftermath of the Leave vote – noting, however, that “you cannot have the rights of a member of the Union with the duties of a third country”.
When asked about the approaching Italian constitutional referendum, Ambassador Terracciano highlighted how the ongoing debate has shifted from political interpretations to the analysis of the actual merits of the proposed reform, and that, thanks to the Italian constitutional system a period of political instability would be highly unlikely.
The Ambassador was joined during the programme by two leading economic experts, who analysed the post-Brext economic scenario: Gerard Lyons, Chief Economic Strategist at Netwealth, and Ann Pettifor, Director of the Macroeconomic (PRIME) think tank.
