Italy must focus immediately on reviving its economy and it will lobby its European partners to obtain more growth-oriented policies at the EU level, new Prime Minister Enrico Letta said in his maiden speech to parliament on Monday, April 29, according to Reuters.

Letta said that later this week he would visit leaders in Brussels, Paris and Berlin to demonstrate the importance Italy attached to EU-wide economic strategy.

"We will die of fiscal consolidation alone, growth policies cannot wait any longer," Letta said, noting that the country's economic situation remains "serious" after more than a decade of stagnation.