Analysis: Markets alive to Berlusconi woes, don't want election
11:53am EST
By
Gavin Jones and
[URL="http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=elisabetta.jucca&"]Lisa Jucca[/URL]
ROME (Reuters) - Markets are so accustomed to political instability in Italy that even a government collapse is unlikely to rattle them much, but they are paying increasing attention to the latest stand-off ahead of crucial confidence votes next week.
Elected with a crushing majority just 2-1/2 years ago, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's popularity has been eroded by scandals, and a split in the ruling coalition in the summer has robbed him of a built-in parliamentary majority.
Berlusconi has lost several recent votes in parliament and may fall in do-or-die confidence votes on December 14. Yet markets have been little moved and Italian bond yields have consistently tracked developments in the broader euro zone debt crisis.
"Investors ignored the political shambles for months but in the last two weeks interest has certainly been increasing and we have been getting more and more questions from clients," said Luigi Speranza of BNP Paribas.
The political turmoil was a "marginal factor" when the premium demanded by investors to hold Italian bonds rather than less risky German Bunds rose briefly to record highs last week, he said.
Equities have also shown little reaction to politics, with the exception of Berlusconi's own broadcasting company Mediaset (MS.MI:
Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz), which has fallen 15 percent over the last month.
Next week could have "two bad days for Italy," Speranza said, as the confidence vote will be followed on December 16 by a European Union summit that aims to decide how to manage future debt crises and could penalize high-debt countries like Italy.
"As far as markets are concerned what happens at the summit will be much more important, even for Italy," Speranza said.
Tellingly, investors don't see the government's survival in the euro zone's third largest economy as all that important.
"Markets have learned to live with this kind of instability in Italy," said Deutsche Bank's Gilles Moec. "They care about whether fiscal policy will stay as it is and there is no indication that is not the case."
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti has kept a tight grip on public finances in the last two years, and most analysts believe Italians are now so convinced of the dangers of profligacy that this stance will remain regardless of the government's fate.
Roberto Lottici, a fund manager at Banca Ifigest, said it was crucial for markets that parliament had approved the 2011 budget this week, shoring up public finances for next year before the confidence votes.
SELL-OFF
Moec said if Berlusconi falls there would be a widening of bond spreads and a stock market sell-off, though both would be modest and short-lived.
"It's inevitable that there will be a knee-jerk reaction: if the government falls, you sell," he said.
Andrea Salza, a fund manager at Nuovi Investimenti Sim, agreed that shares and bonds would take a short-term hit, with stocks like Mediaset and Mediolanum (MED.MI:
Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz), both part of the Berlusconi empire, suffering more than others.
"But in the medium term, global themes such as developments in the peripheral euro zone countries will take over again," he said.
Moec said even if markets react badly to a government collapse, they would welcome one of the most widely touted outcomes: the formation of a so-called "technical" government made up of unelected experts rather than career politicians.
"In the 1990s there was huge political instability but quite a lot of good work was done by technical governments such as those led by Lamberto Dini and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi," Moec said.
"These kind of governments are often more capable of passing the kind of necessary but unpopular measures that professional politicians find it hard to tackle."
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti, former European Commissioner Mario Monti and Bank of Italy chief Mario Draghi are among names often cited in the press, though central bank sources say Draghi, who is hoping to become president of the European Central Bank next year, would not be interested.
Cabinet Undersecretary Gianni Letta, Berlusconi's right hand man, is seen as another candidate to lead such a government, and another possibility is that Berlusconi himself could be re-appointed to head a new, non-partisan cabinet.
WORST OUTCOME
Economists and commentators agree that calling fresh elections would be the worst outcome for markets.
It would put Italy in the hands of a weak, caretaker government to oversee an inevitably bitter campaign ahead of an election that opinion polls suggest may produce no clear winner.
With the center-left opposition in disarray, polls indicate Berlusconi would probably win fresh elections, but without a majority in the upper house Senate -- a recipe for more indecision and instability.
Luca Ricolfi, a politics professor and leading newspaper columnist for La Stampa, said dissolving parliament in the midst of the euro zone's debt crisis could be "fatal" for Italy.
"In the many months that would pass between Berlusconi's fall and the arrival of his successor, financial markets could tear off the protective plaster patiently created by Tremonti in the last two years," he said.
Most analysts are less alarmist, though they agree this is a far from an ideal time for Italy to launch an election campaign, especially one that may produce no clear winner.
"It would mean there would be no significant fiscal measures taken in coming months and if there were a crisis there would be no authoritative government in charge," said Speranza.
Moec said an election campaign would create unwelcome "noise" in the short-term but, but he nonetheless played down the likely impact on markets.
"I think the reaction would still be muted because in Italy there seems little danger of any fringe party moving the country in a sharply different direction on fiscal policy," he said.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Jucca and Nigel Tutt, editing by Mike Peacock)
fra una settimana sapremo...