ITALY – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Italy blocks export of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Australia

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Original article by Daniel Boffey
The Guardian – Page: Online : 5-Mar-21

The Italian government has ruled that AstraZeneca cannot ship 250,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Australia. Italy has become the first country to invoke the European Union’s export authorisation mechanism with regard to coronavirus vaccines. The EU has ordered some 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine; problems at the biotechnology group’s plant in Belgium means that it has now committed to supplying just 40 million doses in the March quarter, well down on the 120 million doses that it was meant to supply.

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ASTRAZENECA PLC, EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Italy’s crisis could end the euro

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Original article by Robert Gottliebsen
The Australian – Page: Online : 13-Mar-20

Italy is facing financial collapse, and this could mean an end to the euro. Of all the nations that adopted the euro, Italy has suffered the most from doing so. Under the lira, its ‘business model’ relied on regular devaluations of its currency. However, once it adopted the euro, it no longer had this option. It needed to increase its productivity to compete with other Eurozone nations, but this did not occur. The coronavirus means that Italy’s tourist industry is at risk of collapse, and its debt-to-GDP ratios could increase to more than 150 per cent by the end of 2020.

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