In the Concluding Remarks for the year 1975, Governor Paolo Baffi had already cited the Bundesbank – whose anti-inflation mandate was defined by law – as an ideal.21 In 1981, under Governor Ciampi, in a different political and social scenario, there was a change of regime: what was known as the ‘divorce’ between the Bank of Italy and the Treasury removed the central bank’s obligation to act as residual purchaser of government securities.
This finally gave full and actual independence to the Bank, which was now able to adopt a rigorous anti-inflation monetary policy.22  19  20  21 22  See Concluding Remarks for the year 1973, 31 May 1974, p.32.