In another echo of today, the inflationary situation was further worsened by rapidly rising prices of agricultural products and other commodities. Economists generally agree that monetary policy performed poorly during this period. In part, this was because policymakers, in choosing what they believed to be the appropriate setting for monetary policy, overestimated the productive capacity of the economy.
Economic and social policy in Italy has set objectives which are generally consistent with these needs; it is pursuing them amidst the difficulties posed by a society many of whose members are reluctant to recognize the paths of the future. In the short run the problem is to lift firms’ investment decisions from the shoals, so that they drive a recovery of demand.