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Western EuropeJune 3 2019

Italy’s finance minister eyes China as Europe tensions grow

Italy’s finance minister talks to Silvia Pavoni about his government’s disagreements with Europe and advancing Italian involvement in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
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Holding public office is by definition challenging, but Italy’s finance minister, Giovanni Tria, carries a particularly heavy load. He has to find ways to fund the expensive plans of his government, such as the so-called citizenship income and the reduction of the pensionable age, which, for a country saddled with a heavy public debt, expensive debt servicing and experiencing barely any growth, is an onerous task.

To make matters worse, the confrontational attitude of the coalition government’s leaders, Luigi Di Maio of the populist Five Star Movement and the far-right Northern League’s Matteo Salvini, towards Europe and, often, towards each other, have rattled the markets, spiking bond yields and making government borrowing more expensive.

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Silvia Pavoni is editor in chief of The Banker. Silvia also serves as an advisory board member for the Women of the Future Programme and for the European Risk Management Council, and is part of the London council of non-profit WILL, Women in Leadership in Latin America. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary fellowship by City University of London.
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