Italian Senate passes budget

Italian Senate passes budget 2011-07-15 06:06:25 - Nksagar-Sagar-Media-Inc: Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has said Italy is on the front line of the eurozone's economic difficulties.Italy raised 2.97bn euros ($4.2bn; £2.6bn) through a sale of 15-year government bonds on Thursday, but had to offer a 5.9% rate of return - an all-time high for such bonds. Italy has sold its latest government bonds, to offer the highest returns on record to ensure they were all well purchased.New 15-year bonds offer a yield of 5.9%, an all-time high for Italian bonds of that duration.Five-year bonds were also released, with a yield of 4.9%. Demand for these was double the release and sale raised a total of 2.97bn euros ($4.2bn; £2.6bn). Financial experts group Forex said the share sale would do little to boost confidence in Italy's finances.International Monetary Fund (IMF) asked Italy to ensure "decisive implementation" of spending cuts.In a report, the IMF said Italy must make efforts to reduce public debt, maintain the stability of its financial sector and introduce structural reforms to boost growth.Italy's Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti hopes his package will cut the deficit to zero by 2014 from this year's 3.9% of gross domestic product.He said in parliament that, without the budget, the monster debt from our past will swallow up our future. International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday called on European leaders to waste no time in introducing new measures to deal with Europe's debt crisis. At a joint press conference in Dublin with representatives from the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB), Ajai Chopra, deputy director of IMF's European Department, said that there should be "prompt implementation" of any new measures.Media-agencies