ITALY DEFICIT NOT DUE TO LIBERALIZATION-MINISTER
Italy's Foreign Trade Minister Mario
Sarcinelli, commenting on speculation in the Italian press,
said a sharp balance of payments deficit in May could not be
attributed to recent moves liberalizing the purchase of foreign
securities.
    Sarcinelli was reacting to suggestions that last month's
overall 3,211 billion lire deficit, which compares with April's
2,040 billion surplus, could be linked to a May 13 decree
abolishing obligatory non-interest-bearing deposits on foreign
securities purchases.
   "The deficit can be better attributed to premature and
delayed foreign trade payments and receipts (leads and lags)
rather than capital outflow to portfolio investment," Sarcinelli
said in a statement.
    Earlier today the newspaper La Repubblica cited remarks by
the Bank of Italy, which announced the deficit for May and said
it had been partly caused by "non-banking capital outflows."
    "In practice, it seems that there has been a constant flow
of capital to foreign securities or investments outside our
borders," said the newspaper.
    But the newspaper added that it was still not possible to
say how far the move to abolish foreign securities purchase
deposits had affected Italy's balance of payments.
 Reuter
