Price stability and low risk premiums lead to low nominal and real interest rates, thereby fostering economic growth.
From the introduction of the euro to today, the real three-month interest rate in Italy has averaged 1 per cent, four percentage points lower than in the previous decade; the average nominal rate on bank loans for house purchases and that on short-term loans to non-financial firms have averaged 4.5 and 5.5 per cent respectively, compared with 11.3 and 12.6 per cent in the ten previous years.