Italy's Matteo Renzi arrived today at the presidential palace in Rome, where he is expected to formally accept the role of prime minister and unveil his new cabinet.
The 39-year-old will become Italy's youngest-ever premier at the helm of a coalition government after helping to engineer the downfall of his predecessor Enrico Letta, who was blamed for failing to carry out promised reforms in the recession-hit country.
He will name as financial minister Pier Carlo Padoan, the chief economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an OECD source told AFP.
The post is a crucial one for the eurozone's third largest economy, which is struggling to reverse the effects of a deep recession and is lumbered with a public debt equivalent to 130 percent of total economic output.
The former Rome university professor reportedly left a G20 economic meeting in Sydney to fly back to Italy on Friday.
With unemployment at record highs, Renzi has promised to overhaul the job market and the tax and education systems in his first few months in power.
