Pirelli pledges to buy Italian bonds

Reuters reports that, in a move to alleviate the euro zone crisis Italy faces, Pirelli & C. SpA has signed a newspaper petition offering to buy government bonds. The tyre maker is said to be one of 24 Italian companies that added their names to a petition instigated by the business daily Milano Finanza.

According to an article Reuters published on August 8, a representative of the 24 signatories stated “no, we won’t stand by and watch Italy being made penniless. Some 50 per cent of Italy’s public debt is in Italian hands. If Italy needs our help with (debt) issuance, we’re here.” The European Central bank decided on August 8 against purchasing Italian government bonds, whose yields reached a record high in the preceding week as unease over the size of Italy’s public debt grew.

The Milano Finanza stated that Italy is “a strong, rich country, with a very high public debt but with a combined public and private debt markedly lower than Britain, lower than Germany…Our industries, our banks, are solid.”