Word: lira
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...months, longer than the average life span of most postwar Italian governments, Andreotti's Cabinet has survived and even prospered with the support of the Communists and other major parties. The Premier reduced inflation from 25% to less than 15%, shored up the vulnerable lira, and even brought the 1977 balance of payments into the black...
...regaining strength. In addition to its vigorous industrial recovery, tourism, which is Italy's biggest earner of foreign currency, is thriving. As gestures of support, the International Monetary Fund has just approved a $530 million stand-by loan, and the European Community has put up $500 million. The lira, artificially propped up by tight controls for the past year, once again is being traded on the free market and is holding steady at 882 to the dollar. But an unchecked inflation, now running at 21.8% a year, threatens these achievements. In order to check prices, Premier Giulio Andreotti...
There is a chance that none of the defendants will come to trial, for two reasons: 1) indictment of the Americans might lead to pressures for their extradition-an unlikely prospect; 2) with Italy asking for U.S. loans to shore up the lira, pressing criminal charges against U.S. citizens might seem tactless. But the commission may act against the Americans anyway, if only to diffuse Italian cynicism about politicians and that international symbol of trouble-Lockheed...
...proposed wage restraints-aimed at curing the sickest partner in the European Common Market. Italy's current inflation rate is 18%, its internal deficit is estimated at $20 billion, and its foreign trade deficit has doubled in only a year, to $4.4 billion. So weak is the lira that it has to be supported by a 7% surtax on foreign exchange purchases. Italy's accumulated foreign debt of $17 billion has all but exhausted her credit: the International Monetary Fund has held up since March a $530 million loan request...
...also realizes that they do not want Italy's capitalistic structure to collapse completely. Said the Premier: "If the Communist Party does not aim at revolution and dictatorship, it is only natural that it should support the recovery plan. The Communists know full well that if the lira plunges to the bottom, it would mean entering a risky area ... It seems to me that this sense of collective responsibility cannot be misinterpreted as the historic compromise, as some would have...