ITALIAN ECONOMISTS REGRET VOLCKER DECISION
Leading Italian economists said they
regretted Paul Volcker's decision not to serve another term as
chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
    Luigi Spaventa, Professor of Economics at Rome University,
told Reuters he thought the decision was a great loss to the
world's financial markets.
    "He (Volcker) was an element of reliability and stability
around world financial markets, a man of great experience,
balance and equilibrium," Spaventa said.
    Spaventa said it was difficult to gauge immediately what
Volcker's decision might mean for the dollar, but he noted that
the markets seemed to like Volcker.
     Mario Monti, Director of the Institute of Economics at
Milan's Bocconi University, told Reuters that "whoever succeeds
Volcker would face a formidable task because no central banker
has ever given such credibility to monetary policy and fighting
inflation."
    Monti said Alan Greenspan, who has been nominated to take
over from Volcker, was likely to pursue "a rigorous monetary
policy to demonstrate to the markets that there will be no loss
of credibility."
    Officials at the Bank of Italy and the Italian Treasury had
no comment on Volcker's decision.
 REUTER
