Even if, as with past initiatives, they will take time to bear fruit, their implementation can immediately support firms and households’ confidence and, in this way, their propensity to invest and consume. Financial intermediaries The improvement of credit quality in Italy, under way since mid-2015, continued in 2018.
In the third quarter the non-performing loan rate decreased to 1.7 per cent, in line with the figures prevailing before the global financial crisis. For business lending, the decline came to a halt in the closing months of 2018 with the onset of the cyclical downturn.