Italy is Not Heading into a Catastrophe Says Foreign Affairs Minister

Concerns that Italy is headed for catastrophe in the case of a destabilizing outcome from the referendum to be held Sunday are misplaced, Italy’s foreign affairs minister has told CNBC in an exclusive interview.

According to Paolo Gentiloni, increasing market fears of a potential default are only relevant to the Italy of 2011, not the country today.

“We had a completely different economic and financial environment in Italy at this time,” he said.

Italians are being asked on December 4 to decide on whether to accept a package of constitutional reforms proposed by the country’s center-left Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi. The prime minister has previously stated that he would resign if the reforms are rejected, but Gentiloni said that Europe would avoid any fallout even if the result forces Renzi’s resignation.

“In any case we will have a weaker and more unstable country, but not a threat for the European economy,” he affirmed.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza