ignazio visco : financial stability implications of the pandemic welcome address by mr ignazio visco, governor of the bank of italy, at the 2nd bank of italy and bocconi university – baffi carefin conference “ financial stability and regulation ”, rome, 22 october 2020. * * * it is a pleasure for me to open the second conference on “ financial stability and regulation ” organised by banca d ’ italia and the baffi centre for applied research on international markets, banking, finance and regulation. this event could not take place in march in rome as we had all wished. but it is taking place today with its original programme, albeit in a virtual format. i want to thank the organisers at bocconi and at the bank for their efforts, the contributors to the five sessions, and the keynote speakers. the papers that will be presented today and tomorrow will cover financial stability and regulatory issues that have been hotly debated over recent years. the keynote lectures will address forward - looking issues on the implications of fintech competition on payment systems, the determinants of the low price - to - book ratios observed in the banking sector, and the challenges to central banking and financial stability created by climate change. in these brief remarks i will focus on the financial stability implications of the outbreak of the current pandemic. this is of course a topic not explicitly covered in the sessions of this conference. last november, when the call for papers was closed, nobody could have anticipated the events that would then unfold. but this does not mean that the discussions that will take place during this event will have no relevance to current financial and policy developments. on the contrary, many of the topics that will be covered in this conference – like the pro - cyclicality of loan loss provisioning requirements, the challenges associated with the rapid adoption of new technologies in the banking sector, the effects of bank dividend pay - out policies, or the implications of rising corporate solvency risk on banks ’ balance sheets – have been and will continue to be at the heart of the debate on the policy response to the covid - 19 crisis in the coming months. the spread of the covid - 19 disease and the necessary lockdown and social distancing measures adopted to contain it have triggered a contraction of the global economy of unparalleled magnitude. the reaction to the uncertainty and risks surrounding the initial stages of the covid - 19 outbreak led to serious liquidity strains in

alessandra perrazzelli : italy is back on track - recovery, resilience and attractiveness remarks by ms alessandra perrazzelli, deputy governor of the bank of italy, at the workshop on italy ’ s attractiveness, dubai expo, dubai, 24 november 2021. * * * i would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to this workshop on italy ’ s attractiveness. in my short speech, i will focus on three aspects : the economic outlook for the italian economy ; the medium - term growth prospects and risks ; and the great opportunity represented by the national recovery and resilience plan ( nrrp ), which is the plan italy has designed and is implementing in the context of the next generation eu ( ngeu ) fund, the european recovery package to support member states hit by the covid - 19 pandemic. the economic outlook the italian economy returned to growth early this year. after a modest expansion in the first quarter, gdp rose markedly in the following two – by 2. 7 per cent in the second quarter ( on the previous period ) and, according to the preliminary estimate, by 2. 6 per cent in the third – boosted by domestic demand and, to a lesser extent, by external trade. the progress in the vaccination campaign contributed to strengthening consumer and business confidence and allowed a faster reopening of production and commercial activities. households increased spending on goods and, above all, services. firms expanded their capital accumulation plans, benefitting from favourable financing conditions and abundant liquidity. recovery was diffuse amongst the main sectors, with industrial activity now standing above pre - pandemic levels. consumer price inflation has recently reached high levels ( 3. 2 per cent in annual terms last october ), prompted mostly – as in the euro area as a whole – by factors that we assess as transient, notably the surge in commodity prices, which may continue in the coming months but is not expected to extend into the medium term. so far, the recent contractual agreements do not suggest any strong upturn in wage growth, in a context where margins of spare capacity in the labour market are still ample. that said, inflation developments and the related expectations, as well as uncertainties on the monetary policy responses by the main central banks, are reflected in higher financial markets volatility ; in the recent weeks sovereign spreads of some euro - area countries, italy is back on track : recovery, resilience and attractiveness remarks by alessandra