President Donald Trump reportedly offered to buy Italian sovereign bonds during a White House meeting last month with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Trump offered to help finance Italy’s 2019 public borrowing, when the Rome treasury is scheduled to issue about 400 billion euros ($462 billion) worth of debt.
Italy recorded a government debt equivalent to more than 130 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, but has been able to keep repayments down thanks to the interest lowering effect of the European Central Bank’s asset purchase program.
