tremonti

What first spooked the markets, indeed, was a rumour that Mr Tremonti was to be removed by the prime minister.

Mr Tremonti was (and, indeed, still is) caught up in an influence-trafficking scandal.

Later he made a statement reaffirming his confidence in Mr Tremonti.

Mr Tremonti has become a sort of guarantor for the markets that his unpredictable boss will not rock Italy's precarious boat.

Paradoxically, the weakness of both Berlusconi and Tremonti means that neither can trump the other, at least in the short term.

Giulio Tremonti, Italian finance minister, last week compared her with a first-class passenger on the Titanic.

Italy's experienced fiscal hawk, Giulio Tremonti, has been weakened by scandal at home and a row with his prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Thanks to the tight fiscal policy of Mr Berlusconi's finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, Italy has so far escaped the markets' wrath.

It would not be surprising if Mr Tremonti had flirted with the idea of revenge.

Leaks of the draft agreed in cabinet show that Mr Tremonti got the upper hand, but that the savings he sought will not come quickly.

Lack of growth means that, despite Mr Tremonti, the public debt is still 120% of GDP, the rich world's third-biggest.

Mr. Tremonti said discussions about the issues concerning the euro zone had been 'long and fruitful. '

But Mr. Tremonti and the leader of the powerful Northern League party support Vittorio Grilli, director general of the Finance Ministry.

Critics say that Mr Berlusconi and Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister, have missed an opportunity.

"With our feet on the ground, one step after another, the Italians and Italy are going in the right direction, " Mr Tremonti has said.

But after his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, stressed the government had been told to act by Brussels, he swiftly corrected himself.

Mr Tremonti has taken to railing against globalisation as the primary cause of Italy's (and Europe's) problems.

But where Mr Tremonti has failed dismally is in finding ways to stimulate growth.

Earlier this year Mr Tremonti described the euro zone as "totally sustainable" .

The delay will make it more difficult for Mr Tremonti to reassure the markets of Italy's underlying solidity.

A 1985 paper showed, according to Mr Tremonti, "the prediction that an undisciplined economy would collapse by its own rules" .

Mr Tremonti has written extensively in the past about his fears of China's "reverse colonisation" of Europe.

Under the influence of its finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, the government is distancing itself from free-market ideas.

But Mr Tremonti has reassured investors that Italy can finance its huge public debt (almost 120% of GDP).

The finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, claimed that his plan included 16 measures to boost the economy.

The risk if nothing happens is that Mr Tremonti's good work on the public finances could be undone.

But for Italy's finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, good news is also no news.

"We are emptying the cave of Ali Baba, " says Guilio Tremonti, Italy's finance minister.

"I want my money back, " Mr Tremonti said yesterday, breaking into English at his year-end press conference.

In that case, Mr Sacconi, only three years younger than the 63-year-old Mr Tremonti, would become the outsider.