In any event, monetary policy cannot serve to raise the area’s growth potential. What is needed instead are policies capable, at a time of major change, of recasting the structural traits of our economies. The reforms underway in several countries must continue apace. In Italy, the economic recovery continues but remains stunted.
After stalling in the second quarter, economic activity appears to have returned to slight growth in the third, according to the latest data on industrial production and recent business surveys. The recovery is having a positive effect on financial stability: the increase in the employment rate is supporting household disposable income; corporate financial vulnerability indices are improving.