consistent statistics ; 11 of reconciling inconsistent classifications ; of building here we draw from de bonis r., c. giron, l. infante and g. quiros ( 2017 ), ‘ financial accounts uses ’, in p. van de ven and d. fano ( edited by, 2017 ), understanding financial accounts, oecd. statistical bridges across valuation criteria ( historical cost vs. market prices ) and recording conventions ( cash vs. accrual ) ; and of credibly interpolating low - frequency data. work continues on these and other fronts and there is still much to do. tomorrow luigi cannari will talk to you about some of the main pieces of work in progress, including the reconciliation of micro and macro financial data ; the integration of financial and non - financial assets in a consistent balance - sheet framework for each sector ; and the improvement of statistics on cross - border flows and holdings. before i leave the floor, let me take this opportunity to pay tribute to the memory of our colleague, andrea generale, a talented, committed researcher and then regulator, who passed away a year ago after a long illness. besides being a highly qualified senior professional, andrea was generous and open with everyone. he had a lifetime commitment to the analysis of banks, corporations, financial institutions and financial systems. for some time andrea coordinated the bank ’ s research on financial flows and significantly contributed to our body of research based on the use of financial accounts. 12 we shall remember him with affection and gratitude. this is all on my part. i see that you have a full agenda, with three keynote lectures and twelve papers packed into one and a half days. i wish you all some very fruitful and enjoyable presentations and discussions. one contribution is in bartiloro l., r. de bonis, a. generale and i. longhi ( 2008 ), the financial structures of the leading industrial countries : a medium - term analysis, paper presented at the conference “ financial accounts : history, methods, the case of italy and international comparisons ”, perugia, december 2005. designed by the printing and publishing division of the bank of italy

4 – performance of the stock of public - sector capital in the main euro - area economies ( percentage points of gdp ) italy germany france spain source : imf. the indicator was constructed for 170 countries by applying the permanent inventory method to the data on public investment expenditure from 1960 to 2015 ; the depreciation rate of public - sector capital is estimated separately for each country. figure 5 – transport accessibility index in the main euro - area economies ( eu 27 = 100 ; 2011 ) germany france italy spain euro area source : european spatial planning observation network ( espon ). share of the eu population that can be reached within four hours using intermodal travel ( air, rail, motorway ). the y - axis shows the value taken by the index compared with that for the eu 27, which is set equal to 100. the indicator for each country is constructed as the simple average of the provincial indicators. millions of euros number of tenders figure 6 – number of tenders and amounts by type of contracting authority in italy year in which tender was awarded year in which tender was awarded low - quality contracting authorities low - quality contracting authorities high - quality contracting authorities high - quality contracting authorities source : a. baltrunaite, c. giorgiantonio, s. mocetti and t. orlando, ‘ discretion and supplier selection in public procurement ’, banca d ’ italia, temi di discussione ( working papers ), 1178, 2018. figure 7a – performance of the debt - to - gdp ratio under different assumptions baseline scenario varenna 2017 scenario varenna 2017 scenario with the spread at current levels note : the baseline scenario assumes a primary surplus equal to that forecast for this year in the 2018 def ( 1. 9 per cent of gdp ), the spread between italian and german government securities remaining at current values ( 240 basis points for ten - year bonds ), the gradual normalization of monetary policy, and growth potential equal to 1 per cent. figure 7b – performance of the debt - to - gdp ratio under different assumptions baseline scenario baseline scenario with increased investment ( bank of italy multiplier ) baseline scenario with increased investment ( bank of italy multiplier ), higher growth potential ( 2 % ) and the same spread as in q1 2018 ( 150 bps ) note : see figure 7a. figure 7c – performance of the debt - to - gdp ratio under different assumptions baseline scenario baseline scenario with increased investment ( lower multiplier ) and a