Italy does not need outside help • NEWS.AT

Heavily indebted Italy has not asked for any financial aid to Russia, according to Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. "We do not need outside help," Salvini said Thursday, on the sidelines of a conference in Verona.

The right-wing leader Lega commented on the hypothesis that the Rome government might try to persuade Russian investors to buy Italian government bonds. Financial markets fear that the dispute between Italy and the European Commission regarding its budget proposals for 2019 worsens before a new debt crisis.

Thursday, however, there was a slight recovery. Prices for 10-year Italian government bonds rose. The background consisted of statements by the leader of the 5-star movement who, along with Lega, formed the government. Luigi Di Maio repeated that it was out of the question to change the budget of the coalition. At the same time, he stressed that Italy did not wish to leave the euro area. "Markets are not worried because Italy does not respect the EU's fiscal rules," he said. "Investors worry about false stories that Italy wants to leave the euro, this is not the case."

Salvini added that if a bank or business had problems, the government was ready to help. The possible help would be different from that of the past. Bank shares are at the center of the Milan Stock Exchange. Investors fear that financial institutions will encounter difficulties if the decline in the value of domestic government bonds weakens their balance sheet. The markets were anxiously waiting for ECB chief Mario Draghi to speak at the press conference after the interest rate meeting on the situation in Italy this afternoon. Its home country has the second highest public debt in the eurozone behind Greece in terms of economic output.