December 29, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 24, 1423

ROME, Dec 28: Italy’s economy is slowly crumbling under the weight of flawed politics that have failed to mature, EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said in an interview published on Saturday.

We are witnessing the sad dissolution of a good part of the Italian economy, Monti told Italian daily La Repubblica. He said that the low level of the country’s political discourse was largely responsible for the economy’s “slow asphyxiation”.

Above everything else, (the problem is) the exasperating individualism in the maintenance of power. You see it in politics, but also in the economy, he said.

Monti, who was invited by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to assume the foreign minister post last year, said that despite improvements in Italy’s economy over the last eight years, the current government has fallen short of expectations.

You don’t see many structural reforms planned for the future. It was expected that a centre-right government...would succeed in giving the country a strong injection of brave reforms like pensions, he said.

It’s true that the international circumstances aren’t favourable. But this leap in liberal policies has not been seen.

The euro zone’s third largest economy grew just 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, piling the pressure on the government to meet its 2002 GDP growth target of 0.6pc.

A crisis at the country’s largest private employer, Fiat has stripped about 0.3 percentage points off growth.

The car maker, the one-time icon of Italian industry, is planning some 8,000 layoffs as it struggles to make a profit.

But Monti said Italy’s economic problems are also political. He accused both the government and the opposition of perpetuating a “game of mutual denigration” and emphasising individualism rather than promoting healthy political debate.

He warned that Italy is playing with the future of its children and urged political leaders to commit themselves to a joint reform of the country’s political discourse.—Reuters