This would be close to, or slightly above, the average pace of growth for the global economy over the ten years up to 2008. This is not just the Reserve Bank’s forecast – though we broadly concur with it at this stage. The IMF, the OECD and various private forecasters have numbers like this.
Also, like other Eurosystem national central banks, the Bank of Italy has lowered the minimum amount accepted for both ordinary and additional bank loans from € to € to allow loans granted to smaller firms to be used as collateral. We are working to enlarge the set of loans that comply with all Eurosystem eligibility requirements.