Six months of Italian economic policy

Abstract

The anti-inflationary policy introduced by Einaudi at a time of acute monetary crisis in Italy had results in the autumn of 1947 that were scarcely hoped for: the arrest of the rising price level and the beginning of a reverse movement. This experiment which has attracted much attention, also in other countries, is studied in the present article. The form taken by the Einaudi policy, its objectives and its repercussions, are here discussed in the setting of the particular, distorted conditions that inflation had produced on the Italian economy. Criticisms levelled at this policy by the interest affected are refuted by the author, who regards the directions thus given to Italian economic policy as the only rational and possible one for anyone wishing to undertake the difficult task of saving the lira, in the given circumstances.

JEL: E31, E65