Volatility in Italian sovereign spreads has increased since mid-2011. This paper finds that news on the euro area debt crisis and country specific events were important drivers of sovereign spreads. Movements in sovereign spreads affect CDS spreads and bond yields of Italian banks, and are...

The GPM project is designed to improve the toolkit for studying both own-country and cross-country linkages. This paper creates a special version of GPM that includes the four largest Euro Area (EA) countries. The EA countries are more vulnerable to domestic and external demand shocks because...

This Financial System Stability Assessment report provides a review of .Italian financial system. The announcement of outright monetary transactions (OMT) and steps toward a banking union have blunted the impact of the sovereign debt crisis on banks, and the expansion of European Central Bank...

KEY ISSUES Unleashing Italy’s Potential The economy is struggling to emerge from a prolonged balance-sheet recession… Tight credit conditions, weak corporate balance sheets, and deeply-rooted structural rigidities continue to weigh on domestic demand. The high level of public debt...

This Technical Note examines the financial situation of Italian households and nonfinancial corporations and risks to the banking system. The credit risk from Italian households is mitigated by their considerable net wealth. Income has declined during the crisis, leading to tighter financial...