Italy to lose $3 billion due to anti-Russia sanctions
Article continues below
A vice president of Italy's association of manufacturing and service companies told that Sputnik.
"In the first year of [anti-Russia] sanctions, Italy's losses stood at some 300 million euro. Now, if [the food] embargo [imposed by Russia as a response to Western sanctions] continues, we expect losses from the [inability to] export in 2015 to stand at 3 billion euro," Lisa Ferrarini, vice president for Europe at Confindustria, said.
According to Ferrarini, many of Italy's long-term investments to ensure its presence in the Russian market have now been rendered futile by the sanctions imposed in 2014, and it will take years for the country to find markets to replace Russia.
Ferrarini expressed concern over the impact of the sanctions on the entire EU economic system, and said Europe would be unable to take action to stabilize the situation without US approval. ■