Big Question: Are Italian bonds worth the risk?

Backdrop too weak Stephen Snowden, co-manager of the Kames Investment Grade Bond and Global Bond funds No. The backdrop is just too weak. With a debt-to-GDP ratio of 120%, Italy has to grow faster in the future than it has in the past just to stabilise its debt burden. Italy has historically suffered from a chronically low growth rate, only 0.75% in real terms over the last 15 years. The reforms required are simply much greater than the removal of Silvio Berlusconi. Italy's birth rate has fallen to one of the lowest in the world (1.4 births per female, the UK being 2.0 as a referen...