Italy reforms protected it from Greek default, says Monti

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is confident reforms undertaken by his country over the last few months will help soften any blow from an unruly default by euro zone partner Greece.

In an interviewwith U.S. television network PBS on Tuesday Monti said he hoped Greece — struggling to reach agreement on a new bailout package — would not default.

“(But) I’m confident that we would be much less exposed to a Greek default risk than we would have been a few months ago,» he said, according to a transcript of the interview on the PBS website.

Monti said Italy was now widely seen as a country «which, since a few months, has really taken some tough structural measures, both as regards the budgetary consolidation and as regards structural reforms for growth.”