Just a single Italian bank needed a public bailout after the 2008 crisis, even as dozens of lenders in northern Europe had to dip into state coffers to stay open.
Household debt as a proportion of gross domestic product is relatively low, about 45 percent, vs. 65 percent in Greece and about 57 percent in Germany. And Italy’s “stable real estate sector has never experienced boom-bust cycles like those in Spain and Ireland,” says Fabio Fois, European economist at Barclays in Milan.