SOUND POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1937, Page 9

SOUND POSITION

ITALY'S FINANCES

NO LOANS NEEDED

GOLD {RESERVE FIGURE

ROME, March 6.

The Italian gold reserves are valued at £43,700,000 at current rates. The Grand Fascist Council held a four-hour sitting and heard the report of the Finance Minister (Count Paolo Thaon de Revel) on the • country's economic and financial situation.

A communique issued afterward revealed that the Bank of Italy's gold reserve on February 20 was 4,021,000,000 lire. This figure, the Minister explained, did not include Treasury reserves' consisting of gold given to the country by patriotic citizens last year and foreign currency and bonds in the possession of the Foreign Exchange Institute. t The note circulation for the Bank of Italy on February 20 was 15,677,600,000 lire, including 1,500,000,000 lire sent to East Africa "for the Italian Empire's monetary needs,"

The Minister declared the Government will be able to meet all its obligations for the whole of the 1937-1938 financial year without additional loans or extra Treasury operations."

This is the filit occasion the gold reserve figures have been published since February 20, 1935. It was then 3,936,000,000 lire.

The Council will again meet on March 8 to discuss the report of Signor Starace, Secretary-General of the Fascist Party.

At the end of 1927 -Italy's currency was stabilised at 92.46 paper lire to £ sterling. The Bank of Italy ceased to publish its regular returns on November 2, 1935.