Italy’s per capita income is lower today than on the eve of the country’s euro adoption in 1999 and over the past decade, the country has experienced a triple-dip recession. It is expected to be at the bottom of the euro area’s growth league this year.
This is in line with evidence of the growth theory literature which documents a negative correlation between growth and economic volatility. •  One lesson of the global financial crisis is that disruptions of financial intermediation play an important role in business cycle fluctuations. Credit constraints amplify economic fluctuations and banking crises contribute to the deepening of economic recessions.