MILAN (ITALPRESS) – “We are witnessing movements of interest rates that have a link with political announcements. The fundamental variables of the economy, on investments, international trade, trend of interest rates depend on variables that are less and less traditional variables, but on geopolitical variables, today I would say more and more policies without the ‘geo’ prefix. All this makes it very difficult to make economic evaluations and it is very difficult to have a coherent picture of the situation.” This was said by the Governor of the Bank of Italy Fabio Panetta at the ABI Executive Committee.
“We are in an increasingly geopolitical world today. Beyond the movements determined also by the short-term debate at the political-international level, there are two fundamental variables that are affecting the economy. The first is technology. We are in the midst of a real technological revolution and I believe that it is determining the relocation of economic and political relevance at an international level. On this is disputed supremacy in the coming decades and Europe unfortunately seems out of this race,” he added. “The second factor is geopolitical. This does not affect only all traditional economic variables. Investments suffer from the uncertainty that is now very strong and the level of uncertainty changes very quickly even in tight times. But above all it induces investment choices and financial variables that have become all strategic and relevant to banks,” he explained.
“When there were sanctions to Russia after the attack against Ukraine, those that really worked were the financial ones and while the real ones less.” The governor explained that “when the United States and Europe were moving in a very coordinated way, these two areas had control of almost 90% of technological and financial infrastructures worldwide.” “But the sanctions on the real economy did not work. In a world where large countries representing more than half of the world’s GDP do not adhere (such as China and India), it is clear that the economy remains open,” he added.
“In the past, wars broke out for the control of oil wells and gas. Today the dispute is for the control of territories where the raw materials of the future are underground. So the arms on a territory or on some large island also depend on the fact that they are territories that in perspective will have a strategic relevance. I expect from the perspective that the tensions will arise also for the control of water resources: water is becoming a poor resource, but relevant both for electricity and artificial intelligence,” he concluded.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
