THE TELEGRAPH: Voting continues in Italy's general election today but the winner will inherit a country on the brink of disaster.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Italy's economic growth will not rise above 0.3 per cent this year, and could be zero.
The country's growth is the slowest in Europe and Mario Draghi, the governor of the Bank of Italy, warned that "the crisis is not yet finished", and "it is not possible to see when it will end".
Inflation is at its highest level for 12 years, and petrol is costlier in Italy than anywhere else on the continent, although at 56p per litre on average it is still far less expensive than in Britain.
There has been a boom in theft, which has risen by 50 per cent in under 20 years, and prisons are one-third overpopulated, despite an "amnesty" two years ago in which 25,000 criminals were released. Italians Vote as Economic Disaster Looms >>> By Malcolm Moore in Rome | April 14, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
