World News \ Europe - Luigino Bruni's interview with Lydia O'Kane
European economics and ethics
(Vatican Radio) This week Italy's Prime Minister announced that the country’s economy would only see growth of about “zero" in 2014. Matteo Renzi's assessment comes as the economy, which is the third largest in the EU, This week Italy's Prime Minister announced that the country’s economy would only see growth of about “zero" in 2014. Matteo Renzi's assessment comes as the economy, which is the third largest in the EU, tackles its third recession in a decade. Renzi's forecast is far lower than the government's previous prediction for a 0.8 percent increase.
The Prime Minister who took office in February, has pledged to turn the economy around by cutting taxes and reforming inefficient labour market rules while keeping a tight grip on public finances.
Luigino Bruni is Professor of Economics at Rome’s Catholic LUMSA University, who despite the disappointing outlook, says it is important to remain positive about the country’s economic future. Listen to Professor Bruni's interview with Lydia O'Kane
…”In Italy today we (have) not collapsed… because most of the entrepreneurs, most of the people working in economics in the economy domain are trying to do their best for creating wealth, new jobs and so on.”
Professor Bruni’s work currently involves doing research on ethics and philosophy in economics and he told Vatican Radio’s Lydia O’Kane that this means putting the human person at a core level.
“The vocation of economics is something directly related to the human being and person because the very nature of economics is to be at the service of the common good…”
He adds that the financial crisis which hit Europe hard could be likened to a disease because a normal healthy economy is something positive that that puts the human person first.
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Ascolta l'intervista a Luigino Bruni
