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Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti spells out his "Grow Italy" plan at a year-end news conference, aiming to boost growth. The scheme follows last week's "Save Italy" austerity package.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Thursday that his government plans to present a broad package of liberalisation, welfare and labor-market reforms by the end of January.

The aim is to boost growth.

The passage of the massive "Save Italy" austerity package last week was the first duty of his government, Monti told reporters in an end-year press conference.

The second act is to be a "Grow Italy" package aimed at making one of the euro zone's most chronically sluggish economies more competitive.

[Mario Monti, Prime Minister of Italy]:
"The problems that the markets have today are primarily problems of a European nature, and therefore a common solution needs to be found, one that is unified and firm. This solution could not even have begun to have been found within Europe, the responsible authority, if Italy - the third-largest economy within Europe - had not got its public accounts under control."

Monti told Italians they should be "relieved" that the spread between the German and Italian 10-year benchmark bonds narrowed from a peak in November even as the European Central Bank (ECB) decreased its buying on the secondary market.

[Mario Monti, Prime Minister of Italy]:
"These costs have been reduced recently, and I think we should be a little bit encouraged by these figures. The costs rose regardless of the acquisitions (by the ECB), without which the costs would have risen even more."