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ROME (Reuters) - The second powerful earthquake to hit Italy in littleover a week has carved a swathe of destruction across one of thecountry's richest and most productive regions and given a freshheadache to an economy already deep in recession. Emilia Romagna, the northern region hit by the quake, is home tosome of Italy's best-known brands, including the world's biggestpasta maker Barilla, high-performance Ferrari sports cars, andmotorcycle maker Ducati Motor Holding. It is also home to some of the country's most productive farmlandand produces valuable food exports including Parma ham and Parmesancheese. Of Italy's 20 regions, Emilia-Romagna has the fourth-biggest grossdomestic product, more than 135 billion euros in real terms in2009, according to the latest Eurostat data. Its importance was underlined by Prime Minister Mario Monti, whopromised swift aid to get the region going again. "The state will do all that it must do... as fast as it can toguarantee the return to normality in a region so special, soimportant, so productive for Italy," Monti told a hastily callednews conference. The quakes are yet another setback for an economy already hobbledby rising unemployment, a severe recession and the weight of toughausterity measures taken by Monti to stave off a Greek-styledefault. Italy has had the slowest-growing economy in the European Union fora decade, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment warned last week that its growth prospects in theperiod to 2017 were worse than those of any other advanced countryit surveyed. Though the extent of damage and the number of dead were still beingassessed, several of those killed in the two quakes wereblue-collar workers inside factories or warehouses that collapsedon top of them. "Fear will paralyze Emilia now," wrote the northern La Stampanewspaper's editor-in-chief Mario Calabresi on Twitter. "Who'sgoing to be willing to go back to work in a big warehouse now?" heasked. Tuesday's quake comes just a few days after the first earthquakecaused an estimated 200 million euros in damage to the region'srich agricultural land. Barilla, based in Parma, said Monday's quake had had no effect onproduction. The pasta-making plant was evacuated for 15 minutes,but the production lines kept going, a spokesman for the privatelyowned company said. Ferrari suspended activities at its Formula One factory inMaranello so that workers could join their families, but there wasno damage to any of the facilities, a spokesman said. Ferrari isowned by Italy's biggest car maker Fiat. Ducati, based in Borgo Panigale near Bologna, said the factory wasclosed because of the tremor but no damage had yet been verified,according to the company's Twitter account. Volkswagen's Audidivision agreed last month to buy Ducati from private equity-ownedInvestindustrial. The earthquakes, magnitude 6.0 and 5.8 respectively, also come at adifficult time for Italy, which is still mired in the euro zonedebt crisis. The nation's 10-year-benchmark bond yields hovered just below 6percent on Tuesday, and an auction showed six-month borrowing costsrising. While the quakes are likely to have a national economic impact,they are also a blow to Italy's cultural heritage becauseEmilia-Romagna is rich in art and architecture. Italian media reported serious damage to the Baroque cathedral inCarpi, and the Te palace in Mantua, an architectural masterpiece ofthe late Renaissance filled with works of art, and the dome of St.Barbara's Basilica in Mantua was reported to have collapsed. The May 20 tremor had already caused the greatest damage to thecountry's architectural and artistic heritage since a 1997 quakecaused parts of the ceiling of the Basilica of St. Francis inAssisi to collapse. (Additional reporting by Antonella Ciancio in Milan, editing by Tim Pearce). I am an expert from sublimated-sportswear.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Craft Running Clothing Manufacturer , Sublimated Soccer Jersey Manufacturer, Sublimated Sportswear,and more.
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