Rome - Foreign investors are staying away from Italy because they are afraid of Mafia infiltration, the head of the country's central bank told parliament on Wednesday.
"Crime has a negative effect on investments in general, and in particular on those coming from abroad," Governor Ignazio Visco said in a hearing to the anti-Mafia parliamentary committee in Rome.
He quoted a 2014 study from the Bank of Italy estimating that if national institutions had been as crime-free as those in the rest of the eurozone, "foreign investment flows into Italy between 2006 and 2012 would have been higher by 15%."
The potential loss of investment over that period amounted to almost €16bn, the central banker said.
Italy's economy is mired in a record-length recession which has pushed unemployment above 13%.
Mafia organisations such as the Ndrangheta from Calabria have spread their influence across the country and in Europe.