To encourage recourse to equity capital, as part of a comprehensive redistribution of public revenue and expenditure the taxation of the share of profit corresponding to the remuneration of equity should be reduced. Including the regional tax on productive activity, the statutory tax rate on company income in Italy is nearly six percentage points above the euro-area average.
Banks and banking supervision Banks have stepped up their lending to firms markedly, in response to the recovery in demand for working capital: the increase amounted to 5.2 per cent on an annualized basis in the three months ended in April; the rate of growth in the twelve months to April was 4.4 per cent, the highest among the main countries of the euro area.