As part of his campaign ahead of the February 24-25 elections, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday pledged to return Italians some four billion euros ($5.5 billion) in property tax payments made last year, claiming that the unpopular tax, implemented by the Monti government, was “an erroneous decision by the state,” which “caused Italian families worry, anxiety, fear of the future.”
A government-funded study in Italy has revealed that the country’s infamous organised crime networks take in just 10.5 billion ($14 billion) a year, a fraction of previous estimates of their turnover.
The study, Gli Investimenti delle Mafie, by the Catholic University of Sacred Heart found that mafia revenues amounted to just 0.7 percent of Italy’s gross domestic product – much lower than a study by Milan’s Bocconi University last year that said criminal activity was responsible for about 10.9 percent of Italy’s income.
The European Court of Human Rights has given Italy one year to reduce overcrowding in its prisons, reported the Associated Press, after the government failed to pass legislation designed to improve living conditions, despite recognising the problem in 2010.
A Qatari sovereign wealth fund will invest up to 1 billion euros in Italian industries over the next four years, as part of a strategy to manage the fund’s estimated $60 billion of assets. Its partner, Fondo Strategico Italiano, will match the amount of planned investment, bringing the total amount to up to 2 billion euros.
In a joint statement, both parties said the fund will be managed equally and will start with 300 million euros of capital to be invested in sectors such as food, fashion and luxury, furniture and design, as well as tourism and leisure.
The head of an Italian tax collection agency, along with four other employees, have been arrested for using nearly 100 million euros ($129.35 million) of taxpayers’ money to organise private parties and other extravagant luxuries, reported Reuters on Wednesday.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has hit out against his successor Mario Monti, criticising Monti of caving in to German pressure when he imposed austerity reforms.
Berlusconi, who turns 76 on Saturday, said in an interview with L’Huffington Post that Monti’s policies were “exclusively recessionary” and added that Germany should drop its austerity drive or leave the euro altogether.
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti plans to cancel at least three public holidays from the national calendar so as to improve economic productivity, reported Sky News on Wednesday, with the nation’s public debt now spiralling up to more than $1.5 trillion.
Italy’s national statistics body, the ISTAT, may cease publishing data on the economy beginning from next year, reported Reuters on Thursday, after ISTAT’s President Enrico Giovannini threatened to go on strike following the government’s decision to cut more money from the agency’s budget.
The Italian government must repay a record 381 million euros ($471 million) to the European Union for grants involving a motorway in the south of the country, reported the Associated Press on Friday, after anti-fraud investigators alleged that the project had been riddled by mafia infiltration, corruption and kickbacks.
The Italian government has agreed to cough up 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in order to bail out Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world’s oldest bank and the nation’s third largest bank by assets, reported Reuters on Tuesday, with the bank believed to be holding on to some 25 billion euros in government bonds.
