Patuelli (Abi), ECB to reduce rates to combat recession

A rate cut at the next ECB meeting "is very much expected: we need to fight the recession that is taking place in Germany, for example, and encourage the recovery of development and employment". Abi president Antonio Patuelli said this in an interview with Messaggero. "Inflation cannot be fought exclusively or predominantly with monetary tightening, but with a complex of articulated measures, including fiscal ones, possibly homogeneous in Europe and that do not depress, but stimulate the economy," Patuelli added.

On Frankfurt, the Abi president emphasises: 'The ECB has increased its powers especially in the most complex phases of the crisis, but the European Treaties governing it should be updated to give the ECB the full range of powers and responsibilities as a central bank that must take into account not only the serious problem of inflation, but also the need to foster development and employment'.

Finally, a quip on the rumours (later denied by the government) about the hypothesis of a measure to hit the banks' 'extra-profits': 'In economic history I have found no trace of the concept of extra-losses for the most difficult phases of the economy, in particular banking. In parallel, there can be no such thing as extra-profits'.