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Follow the money in Italy

John Hooper: Italy and Vatican correspondent, The Economist, ROME

Lots of liquidity, but any chance of structural reform?

Same old cycle?

The allocation depends on the size of the economic hit from covid- 19

THE COMING year will be when Italy hits the jackpot. By summer the first

tranche is due of the cash the European Commission is raising to help EU

member states recover from the effects of covid-19. Italy will get a

disproportionately large share: according to the government, €209bn

($250bn) in grants and loans, out of a total of €750bn.

Such a massive injection of liquidity would be unprecedented: not even the Marshall
Plan, which transformed Italy’s fortunes after the second world war, delivered as much
(taking into account the size of the economy and after factoring in inflation). Whether
the EU’s recovery funds will have the same impact will depend on several factors.