This is CBS, I on the World. I'm John Batchel. I welcome Lorenzo Fiore. He is in Milano. He is very carefully going to introduce this to Christmas in Milano, but we begin with news from the Financial Times. All of Europe is now reacting to the downturn in German business, none more so than Italy.

The Financial Times says Italy's slowing economy raises pressure on Georgia Maloney, the Prime Minister.

Statistics Agency halves GDP growth for 2024.

Lorenzo, very good evening to you.

This is a disappointment, but it is logical, given the troubles in Germany.

What is the opinion in Italy?

Is George and Maloney being faulted for this,

or are people understanding that the weakness in Germany and France is the cause of it?

Good evening to you.

Good evening, John, and good evening to all the radio listener.

Well, let me tell you that here in Italy, the situation regarding what is happening in France and Germany is pretty much presented by all the media and newspaper.

But of course they are trying to bring a shadow over what the government of Georgia

Meloni is doing here in Italy.

In my opinion, the time are not the best.

I have to agree with that.

But certainly Italy is in the European scenario, a strong country.

We have a grow that is slowing down. Okay. We are the largest debt in the world. But it's also true

that we have one of the population that save money and put in the bank depot.

So if we have three trillion of debt, it's also true that we have something like two trillion of money in the bank by private Italian citizens.

So we have a surplus, always positive trade trade surplus, and we have an economy that

is diversified. What is suffering here in Italy is suffering, the manufacturing, which is an

excellence of our, let's say, economy growth, simply because we are part of the supply chain very much connected with the

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