on 10 years bonds has gone down from 575 to 260 basis points. The trade balance shows a significant surplus. Capital and foreign direct investments are returning to Italy. Growth will resume in the second half of the year. I am confident that in the next World Economic Forum Competitiveness index the ranking of Italy will improve significantly. This depends on us not on you.
The future of Italy lays on a steady basis. Italy will not look backward or inward. Italy will continue to be an active partner in Europe. But this requires action. This is why I have chosen to do something which I considered totally against my nature and which is probably against my personal interest. I have decided to lead a civic society movement in the next month general elections because I see the need and the value of a new form of politics, beyond traditional, old coalitions.
I call on the vibrant forces of society to support an agenda of reforms. It’s the challenge of making sure that merit and hard work are rewarded. It’s the challenge of ensuring that opportunity is shared and accessible.
This is the essence of my commitment. Building a highly competitive social market economy in Italy, and in Europe. It is an ambitious agenda, but I remember professor Schwab words that we all have heard, I quote you Klaus, “tremendous social responsibilities”. It is an ambitious agenda but we accountable to the people from our respective county. I accountable to the Italian people to the most fragile in the society, to those who pay the intolerable price of unemployment, our youth in particular, and the deprivation. They are, we should recognize this, they are largely the victims of governments which often have not been strong enough in confronting tax evasion, corruption, special interest groups, greedy manipulators in financial markets, rent seekers. They are the victims of politicians who often engaged in electoral promises regardless or whether these are believable or not, or all too often, they aggravate the crisis because intent as they are on domestic elections they reject the call for the needed greater policy coordination and instead feed nationalism and populism.
