ООО Концерн «ДЖЕНЕРАЛ- ИНВЕСТ» Россия, 105062, г. Москва, ул. Покровка, д. 47 А ТЕЛ/ФАКС: +7 (495) 727-21-66 [email protected] www.c-g-i.ru Dear friends, The situation that came about in recent days on the international financial markets was for many a source of concern. The turmoil in the markets have taken off when the news spread that the Congress and the Senate of the United States had not reached an agreement on increasing the debt and the U.S. threatened to declare a technical default on August 2. The tensions and speculative pressures that were on in the days immediately prior to 2 August have been strengthened earlier this week when the markets reopened following the downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt from AAA to AA +. The Italian stock market trends last week have been heavily affected by the international tensions and led to consolidate the loss of Milan Stock Exchange at -8.98% in the last seven days. The national and international press has argued that poor performance of the Milan Stock Exchange (in line with all other main markets) was due to the debt situation of the Italian Republic. It is necessary for us to take a position and argue the reasons that lead us to remain relaxed about the situation of the Italian debt: • The S & P Rating on Italian government debt in the long term is A + (since 2006, and has not been touched despite the crisis of 2008) • Italy has a public debt equal to 120% of GDP, but this debt has been accumulated in 50 years, while the United States, which have a public debt equal to 100% of GDP have accumulated it in less than 10 years with a dynamic of which they have clearly lost control. % Ratio Public Debt / GDP (source: Istat www.istat.it) • Since its creation in 1861, the Italian Republic has always paid their debts (unlike Spain, Iceland, Russia, Argentina, Greece) • The Italian government is considering to approve a reform to achieve a balanced budget already in 2013. • The deficit / GDP in Italy is still fairly high, 5%, while that of Germany is already back just below the parameters of Maastricht 3% (far from that states in crisis: Portugal: 9.6% , Ireland 14.3%, Greece 13.6%, Spain 11.2%). In light of the limited data given above, we feel confident in saying that Italy is not at default risk, and indeed, among the economies under pressure in recent weeks is certainly the one with the most sustainable situation. The proximity of the European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who is Italian, to the government of his own country is for the Italians further guarantee that even within the European institutions there will always be agreements on the most effective strategies to allow the markets to find peace. Chairman of the Board of Directors Concern General Invest Vincenzo Trani .