His comment was born of good intentions: to facilitate the financing of SMEs. But there are other instruments available for that purpose. It would be useful if, once a year, the ministers of finance and economic affairs of the EU were to examine the impact of regulation on the financing of businesses.
Funds were attracted from abroad by the steady improvement in inflation and the consequent expectation of lower interest rates. These factors were consolidated and reinforced in 1998, inter alia by Italy’s imminent adoption of the single currency. Italian portfolio investment abroad has increased more rapidly. Portfolio investment outflows were substantially less than inflows in both 1995 and 1996.