, Columnist
Italian Businesses Don't Need a Cheap Lira After All
It has taken a while, but the country has learned to be competitive within the euro zone.
Business is booming at Diadora.
Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
We have become so accustomed to bad economic news from Italy that few will have noticed how the euro zone’s third largest economy seems to be back on the march. That has helped some with job creation, but it also has significance for the future of the euro area: It’s undermining an article of faith among the euroskeptics, that the single currency is a ball and chain around the neck of Italy’s famed export sector.
The Italian government recently upgraded its growth forecasts for 2017, raising them to 1.5 percent from 1.1 percent in April. The economy is expected to expand at a similar pace over the next two years, which is faster than what the government thought barely five months ago.