Italy within reach of economic recovery: Italian PM

Rome, Sep 6 (IANS) Italy has averted the worst case scenario of the debt crisis and economic recovery in the eurozone's third largest economy is within reach, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said.

"Although recovery is not visible in numbers yet ... it is now within our country's reach and I think it will come soon," Monti Wednesday told television Norba 24.

The threat of a financial crisis has abated considerably, Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Italy was now among the European countries that would decide how to help deal with the Greek debt crisis, and it was not by chance that Italy had regained "a respected position in a decision-making team", the prime minister said.

Since Monti took office last November, his emergency cabinet of non-political technocrats has striven to cut the deficit and lower borrowing costs through a harsh austerity policy.

But as protests have caused a mounting social tension over the past weeks, local analysts urged the government to speed up with the announced plan for growth to stimulate the economy, which suffered from the volatile financial markets and has fallen for four consecutive quarters.