The caution employed in relaxing monetary conditions meant that Italy’s financial and foreign exchange markets were not affected more than marginally in 1997 by the tensions that emerged at the international level in connection with the crisis in East Asia and the vicissitudes of some important European countries or by those attributable to domestic political developments.
Today the Bank of Italy’s reserves comprise more than 2,500 tonnes of gold and foreign assets, net of repurchase agreements, worth 82 trillion lire, compared with ó trillion in 1992. Underlying the lira’s solidity is the return to balance between Italy’s external assets and liabilities.