Italy Denies Being Spain's Poor Relation

One paper has called it the "Mediterranean derby". But no one can agree on the scoreline. And both sides claim the other is cheating.

It began last month when the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, spread mingled delight and dismay through southern Europe with figures suggesting Spaniards were now wealthier than Italians. The Brussels statisticians concluded that in 2006, allowing for price differences, Italy's gross domestic product per head had slipped behind that of Spain.

Spaniards hailed Eurostat's figures as marking a fundamental shift in the balance of power and influence in Mediterranean Europe. Italians, who have traditionally viewed their Latin cousins as poor relations, were stunned by the news.

But after two weeks of anguished editorializing and increasingly pointed questioning of the record of Italy's leaders, the prime minister, Romano Prodi, has responded with a cry of foul. In a letter to the news agency Ansa, he claimed Eurostat's number-crunchers had got it wrong, and "in per-capita terms our GDP is about 13% higher than Spain's".

Mr Prodi said "everyone knew" calculations that allowed for so-called purchasing power parity were "entirely fickle", because there was no agreed method for measuring it. Italy's prime minister is a former economics professor, but (as Spanish commentators will no doubt note) he was also until three years ago the head of the European commission, the body responsible for Eurostat.

Mr Prodi nevertheless chose to rely on figures from the International Monetary Fund. These also allow for price differences, but conclude that Italy's output per head is almost €3,000 greater, he said. True, conceded a Spanish official, but the IMF statistics date from 2005, when Brussels, too, put the Italians ahead.