Italy minister says should study leaving euro

SUp3rFM · Post by **SUp3rFM** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:19 pm

Italy minister says should study leaving euro
Fri Jun 3, 2005 8:12 AM BST
Printer Friendly | Email Article | RSS

ROME (Reuters) - Italy should consider leaving the single currency and reintroducing the lira, Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni said in a newspaper interview on Friday.

Maroni, a member of the euro-sceptical Northern League party, told the Repubblica daily Italy should hold a referendum to decide whether to return to the lira, at least temporarily.

He also said European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was one of those chiefly responsible for the "disaster of the euro."

The euro "has proved inadequate in the face of the economic slowdown, the loss of competitiveness and the job crisis," Maroni said.

In this situation, the answer is to give the government greater power to defend national industry from foreign competition and "to give control over the exchange rate back to the government."

Maroni is a front-line government minister but his views are not believed to be shared by those with far greater sway over economic policy, such as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi or Economy Minister Domenico Siniscalco.

Maroni cited Britain as a virtuous example of a country whose economy "grows and develops, maintaining control over its currency."

When it was put to Maroni that Trichet on Thursday dismissed the idea that monetary union could break up, the minister replied: "Sure, he is one of those chiefly responsible for the disaster of the euro."

He added Trichet should try to convince hard-pressed small Italian businessmen that the euro was a success.

Maroni also dismissed the idea that Italy's struggling economy could face an Argentina-style financial disaster if it abandoned the single currency.

"We're already heading towards Argentina, that's why we have to change direction," he said.

Three years ago Argentina defaulted on its public debt.

In Reuters

Could it happen

micdab · Post by **micdab** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 2:40 pm

There was similar news this week from Germany

I hope this isn't serious...

Elmo · Post by **Elmo** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 2:50 pm

Oh my... I heard a similar thing on the Dutch radio.

SUp3rFM · Post by **SUp3rFM** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:36 pm

I don't know what's the general public opinion in other countries, but in Portugal, you can bet that most of us would support the ideia of gettinb back our old "escudo", instead of the Euro.

In general opinion, the Euro resulted in a massive rise of prices.

micdab · Post by **micdab** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:44 pm

SUp3rFM wrote:I don't know what's the general public opinion in other countries, but in Portugal, you can bet that most of us would support the ideia of gettinb back our old "escudo", instead of the Euro.

In general opinion, the Euro resulted in a massive rise of prices.

And do people think that going back to the escudo will bring back the old prices??

SUp3rFM · Post by **SUp3rFM** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:23 pm

Of course, not!

But at least, they have something real to blame for the increase in prices!

knospe · Post by **knospe** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 7:21 pm

micdab wrote:There was similar news this week from Germany

I hope this isn't serious...

Was just a rumor spread by Stern

Stern is famous for spreading absurd-theories as the truth. Need proof? Look here: One big story of Stern.

No one actually thourght about bringing back the DM:

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,358919,00.html wrote:"Eine Rückkehr zur D-Mark ist für Deutschland nach Angaben von Regierungssprecher Béla Anda keine Option."

"Die Bundesbank, die Europäische Zentralbank und das Finanzministerium wiesen dies jedoch umgehend als absurd zurück. "

"Going back to the DM is no Option for Germany." Béla Anda
"The Bundesbank, the ECB und the german Ministry of Finace refuse this immediately as absolute inscane."

BogPoet · Post by **BogPoet** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 7:59 pm

SUp3rFM wrote:I don't know what's the general public opinion in other countries, but in Portugal, you can bet that most of us would support the ideia of gettinb back our old "escudo", instead of the Euro..

You can? Where did you heard that? I suppose I'd be in the minority, then... I can't track escudos!

Now, seriously, I don't like the idea of the escudo coming back. I travel abroad two or three times a year, on average, usually to euro-zone countries, so going back to the old currency would be a pain in the... huh, neck. Fortunately, it's just a rumor.

ART · Post by **ART** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:06 pm

This idiocy is a propagandistic maneuver of the party of the minister Maroni. Nobody in Italy thinks seriously to a return of the Lira.

ART · Post by **ART** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:13 pm

SUp3rFM wrote: But at least, they have something real to blame for the increase in prices!

The euro from 1999 to 2002, period in which still had not happened the substitution of the national coins and notes with those euro, it has not provoked increases of nothing. The reason of the increases goes searched in part in the rounding of the cents and part in the "cleverness" of the traders, not in the euro himself.

helicase00 · Post by **helicase00** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:57 pm

stop blaming the euro for everything
i live in Malta, we dont have the EURO
but prices still got UP

giberski · Post by **giberski** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 10:57 am

I heard our minister of finance, (Zalm) and he was laughing his head off. He said we don't have to worry, because it wasn't the minister of finance who said it, but just someone else. He said that when the minister of finance would say it we have to have a talk with him! So don't worry.