London – Italian Embassy hosts meeting to boost investments

Italy bucks the negative economic trend and is prospected as a country in which to invest: a conference called “Equity and Debt Investment in Italy” was held at the Italian Embassy in London this morning. It was organised by the Embassy and the Italian law firm Legance- Avvocati Associati.  The discussion focused on Italy’s financial market, its economic recovery and its investment and growth prospects. Specialists, representatives of the Italian authorities and professionals addressed an audience of around 200 investors and representatives of financial institutions. Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano opened the proceedings with an upbeat speech about Italy’s economic situation. He said: “I am optimistic about the positive trend in Italy’s markets. The general figures show a rise in interest following the economic recovery, with GDP up 0.8 percent in 2015 and forecasts of more than 1 percent growth for 2016, compared to the minus 1.9 percent in 2014. A further cause for optimism is the rise in transnational merger and acquisition operations, which amounted to more than 50 billion dollars in 2015.” At the conference, the Ambassador said the conference “should be judged within the broader context of events, more than 35 from 2014 to date, that the Italian Embassy in London is holding to promote a regular dialogue with the community of financial investors, analysts, professionals, specialist journalists in the city on Italy’s market opportunities”. This morning’s debate was held between Ambassador Terracciano and, via videolink, Fabrizio Pagani, the head of the technical secretariat of the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance’s cabinet, and Sole 24Ore journalist Marco Ferrando. The debate was followed by several round tables with contributions from former Economy Ministers Vittorio Grilli and Domenico Siniscalco, Massimo Della Ragione of Goldman Sachs, Luigi De Vecchi of Citigroup and Giuseppe Baldelli of Deutsche Bank and Giorgio Gobbi, head of Bank of Italy’s Financial Stability Service.