Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
The economic situation in Italy is worrying
investors and may have cost its prime minister his
job. Like Greece, Italy is facing pressure to make
unpopular cuts in government spending. Silvio
Berlusconi sought to enact measures meant to satisfy
his country's creditors. On early November eighth,
Mr. Berlusconi won a budget vote in Italy's lower
house of parliament. But the prime minister lost
something else. A majority of lawmakers in the lower
house refused to vote. It appeared Mr. Berlusconi
had lost their support. He announced that he would
resign after parliament passed budget cutting
measures. Italian government debt is about one
hundred twenty percent the size of the country's
economy. That is second only to Greece in Europe.
Greece, Ireland and Portugal have all required
rescue loans to help them pay creditors. But unlike
those nations, Italy has the third largest economy
using the euro. And it is among the ten largest
economies in the world. On November seventh,
European finance ministers met in Brussels to
discuss the deepening debt crisis among nations
using the euro. European Union Economic and Monetary
Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Italy needed to
enact reforms. "[It is] essential now that Italy
will stick to its fiscal targets, ensure their
implementation and intensify the structural reforms
that can boost growth and job creation." Italy
recently faced an increase in borrowing costs that
topped seven percent. Unlike Greece, Italy's budget
deficit is not out of control. Of greatest concern,
however, is Italy's lack of growth and job
creation.Financial officials and market watchers are
also concerned that Italy's debt problems may be too
big to solve for the seventeen nations using the
euro. European leaders have yet to agree on the size
and conditions of a rescue fund, or plan.In
Brussels, Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager
said the rescue fund needed to be bigger. But he
said budget reform of euro nations was important,
too. "We have to increase the capacity of the
emergency fund, that's very important, but it's not
the only thing. Economic reforms and budget cuts in
countries currently under attack of the financial
markets are at least as important than more money in
the emergency fund.'' For VOA Special English, I'm
Alex Villarreal. Special English is VOA's daily
source of news and information for people learning
English. Go to voaspecialenglish.com for transcripts
and MP3s of our stories and for the Classroom, our
e-learning platform.
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
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