Italy

Italian Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli shares his views on Italy's economic stability, challenges ahead, and the country's political future.

The last thing the global economy needed was more political upheaval in Europe. But that's what we're getting. Italian prime minister Mario Monti plans to resign, and there will be elections early in 2013.

Italy, the third biggest economy in the euro zone, has been plunged into political turmoil as Prime Minister Mario Monti has announced plans to step down.

In Europe today, the focus has shifted from Spain to Italy, in the ongoing EU debt crisis. Moody's credit rating agency has downgraded Italian debt to just two levels above junk status.

European leaders have settled on a new way to bail out banks. The structure will allow the EU to prop up troubled banks directly. It's the kind of change Spain, Italy and other struggling eurozone countries were looking for.

What are Italians talking about these days? Soccer. But the eurozone crisis is still keeping people on edge.

Italians are holding out hope that a meeting of European leaders on June 28 will prove to be a turning point in the euro crisis.

Spain now pays more than 6.6 percent on its 10-year bonds. The U.S. pays just over 1.6 percent. Eurozone debt, however, may yet hurt both sides of the Atlantic.

As if Europe didn't have enough on its plate, it now faces a big drop in the price of one of its biggest exports, olive oil. Seventy percent of the world's olive oil supply comes from Spain, Greece and Italy.