Italy/ elections/ economics - Journal (english) 11.04.2008 8 UTC

Welcome back... Italians go to the polls this weekend to elect a new parliament. Whoever wins Sunday's election will have to deal with the monumental task of reviving the country's crippled economy. Italy's public debt is the third-largest in the world, its educational system is weak, its workforce is underqualified, and its productivity is low. And if that's not bad enough, the International Monetary Fund says that this year Italy's economy isn't expected to grow at all.