Eric J. Lyman

Special for USA TODAY

Matteo Renzi would replace technocrat Enrico Letta

Letta is reformer with solid record as Florence%27s mayor

Renzi would head the third Italian government since last April

ROME — For the third time in 10 months, a new leader is taking the reins in Italy, and the world will be watching to see how Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi tackles one of the world's most troubled industrialized economies.

Approval levels for Renzi, a reformer with a solid record as the mayor of Italy's ninth-largest city, are sky high. But his first order of business will be to spark growth in an economy that has shrunk in per capita terms for each of the past 23 quarters and has a burgeoning public debt along with historically low consumer confidence levels. Unemployment levels in the country have not stopped rising despite modest signs of an economic turnaround in recent months.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta held a final Cabinet meeting Friday before delivering his resignation to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who is now expected to ask Renzi to form a new government.

Renzi will head the third Italian government since April, when technocrat Mario Monti stepped down to make way for Letta. At 39, Renzi will also be the youngest prime minister since the establishment of the Italian Republic at the end of World War II.

Italians appeared hopeful the fiery Tuscan would be able to push through changes that would breathe life into the moribund Italian economy.

"Letta had his chance and he could not push through the reforms and Renzi is a very capable," said Fiorello Ricci, 28, an unemployed electrician. "Somebody has to get this economy moving."

Sandra Olanda, a 39-year-old secretary, agreed: "If he can't do it who can?" she asked. "We don't have many options."

Any uptick in economic activity would be a welcome sign across Europe, where the third largest euro-zone economy has been a drag for more than a decade. But it may not come quickly.

"The challenges a Renzi government will face are enormous," says Javier Noriega, chief economist with investment bankers Hildebrandt and Ferrar in Milan. "He has said he wants to create jobs and economic growth, but so far we have little indication how he will do that."