Italy Crisis: Mario Monti Moves to Form New Government

Mario Monti is starting work to form a new government to lead Italy out of its acute debt crisis which prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The appointment of Monti, an ex-EU competition commissioner, was announced by Italy’s president on Sunday.

Monti said he wanted to build “a future of dignity and hope” for Italy’s children.

Global markets have responded cautiously to the creation of the emergency government.

In what was seen as the first test of Monti’s leadership, Italy sold 3 billion euros ($4.2 billion) of new five-year bonds on Monday.

However, it had to pay more to borrow the money, a rate of 6.29 percent, indicating continuing unease in the markets.

Berlusconi was forced to resign when the yield on Italian bonds rose to more than 7 percent last week, the rate at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal were obliged to seek bailouts from the EU.