Off the wire
• Lithuania cuts economic growth forecasts  • PM reveals compensation plan for investors of collapsed Portuguese bank  • Oil prices mixed on lack of leads  • UN chief remains deeply concerned about situation in Gambia after presidential elections  • Roundup: Manhunt for Zurich mosque attacker ongoing: police  • 2nd LD: 9 dead, many injured in Berlin Christmas market crash: police  • Shandong Luneng defender Gil on Flamengo radar  • Spanish stock market falls 0.81 pct on Monday  • Chinese ambassador hails China-Africa cooperation "dynamic"  • Zika outbreak fuelled by 2015 El Nino: study  
You are here: 　 Home

Most German economists oppose Italy's exit from eurozone: survey

Xinhua, December 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

A large majority of surveyed German economists oppose exit of Italy from the eurozone, German research institute Ifo reported on Monday.

According to the latest results of the Economists Panel jointly conducted by the Ifo Institute and the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 61 percent of surveyed economists are against an exit, while 29 percent are in favor.

Around 52 percent of the surveyed economists fear that an exit by Italy could negatively impact the eurozone's stability, while around 23 percent believe its impact could even be "very negative."

Some 57 percent of surveyed economists believe that Italy is unlikely to exit, while 14 percent think that it is "very unlikely" to do so.

Only 20 percent believe that Italy is "likely" to leave the single currency bloc, while 6 percent assessed this outcome as "very likely", according to the results of the panel, participated by 100 German economics professors.

"Italy's exit would be the beginning of the end of the eurozone," warned Niklas Potrafke, director of the Ifo Center for Public Finance and Political Economy. Endit