Italy pays too much to borrow due to policy risk, ECB’s Visco says

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Italy is paying too high a premium to borrow on the bond market due to uncertainty over its economic policy, European Central Bank policymaker Ignazio Visco said on Monday, days after the Italian government collapsed triggering fresh elections.

“I still think that the current spread with respect to German Bunds is somehow much higher than what would be justified by the macroeconomic fundamentals of the country,” Visco, who heads the Bank of Italy, said on Bloomberg TV.

“But this is still something that has to do with the uncertainty that the market sees in terms of policy.”

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Toby Chopra)