Italian lawmakers set to approve key reforms

Italian lawmakers were set to give the nod Saturday to a reform package aimed at staving off bankruptcy, as Greece got to work on its own economic makeover after a week of eurozone debt trauma.Italy's lower house of parliament was to meet from 1130 GMT to give final approval for the reforms already agreed by the senate -- paving the way for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's resignation and the formation of a new government.

Italian lawmakers were set to give the nod Saturday to a reform package aimed at staving off bankruptcy, as Greece got to work on its own economic makeover after a week of eurozone debt trauma.Italy's lower house of parliament was to meet from 1130 GMT to give final approval for the reforms already agreed by the senate -- paving the way for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's resignation and the formation of a new government.

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's days are numbered. He will likely be gone in a week. When it happens it will be a case of 2 down with Merkozy (France and Germany), Spain, and Portugal (thus 4) to go.

Global market tensions eased on Friday as Italian lawmakers gave initial approval to a package of key economic reforms that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has set as the precondition for his resignation.The wide-ranging measures including privatisations and boosting competition in the labour market were adopted by the Senate and will now go before the Chamber of Deputies, or lower house, for a vote expected on Saturday.

Whether or not Italian President Giorgio Napolitano intended to step down or it was just a rumor, following ECB President Mario Draghi phone call, Napolitano denies resignation reports. Napolitano pledged on Saturday that he would stay in office until the end of his term on May 15 following reports that he planned to step down to break the deadlock created by last month's election,

ROME/MILAN — Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s imminent resignation drove up the country’s borrowing costs on Monday, as markets took fright at the prospect of a return to an old-style Italian political crisis. The spread between Italian BTPs and German Bunds widened to 349 basis points from 325 late on Friday and BTP future shed more than a point on concern over Monti’s departure.

Italy was pitched into chaos Monday night after early election results suggested that the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had surged back on to the political scene in a triumph that could enable him to undermine or even block a new government. The two houses of parliament were split between the billionaire tycoon’s conservative coalition and the centre-left Democratic Party, led by Pier Luigi Bersani, a 61-year-old former Communist and the son of a mechanic.