(Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi confirmed he met European Central Bank President Mario Draghi this week, just days after Draghi urged faster action to overhaul Italy's economy.
"Yes, I saw Draghi yesterday, I often see him," Renzi told reporters in Milan on Wednesday, but offered no further comment on the encounter.
Official data last week showed the euro zone's third largest economy had fallen back into recession after a brief remission at the end of last year, underlining the scale of the problems facing Renzi who has championed a greater emphasis on economic growth in resolving the euro zone's debt crisis.
At the ECB's monthly news conference last Thursday, Draghi said a lack of structural reforms was holding Italy back and hampering a return to growth, prompting widespread media speculation that European authorities could push to impose some form of special administration on Italy.
The local Corriere dell'Umbria daily reported on Wednesday that Renzi met Draghi in Citta della Pieve, a small town in Umbria, north of Rome, where the ECB president has a holiday house.
It said Renzi arrived on Tuesday morning, his government helicopter landing at a specially cleared municipal sports field and remaining around two-and-a-half hours. Renzi's spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.
An ECB spokesman also declined to comment. Draghi's pledge in 2012 that the ECB would do "whatever it takes" to save the euro has been widely seen as the key to ending the severest phase of the euro zone debt crisis.
But he is frequently criticized by opposition parties in Italy for advocating policies they say have deepened the economy's problems.
Having come to office in February pledging swift reforms, Renzi has faced growing criticism for not doing enough to cut Italy's record unemployment and its 2-trillion-euro debt pile or revive an economy which has shrunk by some 9 percent since 2007.
Much of the government's energy has been taken up in a parliamentary battle over constitutional reforms to curtail the powers of the Senate and regional governments, a measure intended to speed up decision-making and give the government more power to effect change.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, Renzi rejected suggestions his government was moving too slowly on reform and dismissed speculation that he could be forced to accept the kind of outside intervention seen in other crisis-hit countries like Greece.
reuters.com
"Yes, I saw Draghi yesterday, I often see him," Renzi told reporters in Milan on Wednesday, but offered no further comment on the encounter.
Official data last week showed the euro zone's third largest economy had fallen back into recession after a brief remission at the end of last year, underlining the scale of the problems facing Renzi who has championed a greater emphasis on economic growth in resolving the euro zone's debt crisis.
At the ECB's monthly news conference last Thursday, Draghi said a lack of structural reforms was holding Italy back and hampering a return to growth, prompting widespread media speculation that European authorities could push to impose some form of special administration on Italy.
The local Corriere dell'Umbria daily reported on Wednesday that Renzi met Draghi in Citta della Pieve, a small town in Umbria, north of Rome, where the ECB president has a holiday house.
It said Renzi arrived on Tuesday morning, his government helicopter landing at a specially cleared municipal sports field and remaining around two-and-a-half hours. Renzi's spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.
An ECB spokesman also declined to comment. Draghi's pledge in 2012 that the ECB would do "whatever it takes" to save the euro has been widely seen as the key to ending the severest phase of the euro zone debt crisis.
But he is frequently criticized by opposition parties in Italy for advocating policies they say have deepened the economy's problems.
Having come to office in February pledging swift reforms, Renzi has faced growing criticism for not doing enough to cut Italy's record unemployment and its 2-trillion-euro debt pile or revive an economy which has shrunk by some 9 percent since 2007.
Much of the government's energy has been taken up in a parliamentary battle over constitutional reforms to curtail the powers of the Senate and regional governments, a measure intended to speed up decision-making and give the government more power to effect change.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, Renzi rejected suggestions his government was moving too slowly on reform and dismissed speculation that he could be forced to accept the kind of outside intervention seen in other crisis-hit countries like Greece.
reuters.com
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