Italy completes its response to the EC after the rejection of its 2019 budget
The Italian government is finalizing its response to the European Commission, which has rejected its budget plan for 2019 at the end of October for foreseeing a deficit of 2.4% of GDP and gave Rome a deadline until tomorrow to send a new one.
The Executive, formed by the anti-system 5 Stars Movement (M5S) and the extreme right-wing League, finalizes the answer that should be sent to the Commission in the next hours, because tomorrow ends the term given by the Community Executive to receive a new document.
The budget for next year plans to approve a series of measures, such as a help for the unemployed or the reform of the pension system to accelerate the retirement age, which require expanding public spending.
The Government has estimated for 2019 a deficit of 2.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and a debt of 130%, practically like the current one, and with these parameters the two formations that direct the country believe that the Italian economy will grow a 1.5%
The draft is currently in the Budget Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy for preliminary analysis before moving to the full chamber and start its parliamentary debate prior to its approval.
Today, the acting president of the National Institute of Statistics (Istat) warned in this commission that the growth forecasts of the Government are very optimistic and warned that in the third quarter of the year the variation in GDP was "zero" compared to the previous , so there are signs of "a phase of weakness in the economic cycle".
Also the president of the Italian employers, Vincenzo Boccia, said in this committee that "the government's estimates in relation to growth are too ambitious" and that, if not met, there is a risk of exceeding this deficit of 2.4% , which is what worries Brussels.
According to employers' forecasts, the Italian GDP will increase by 0.9% in 2019, and not by 1.5% as the Italian Government believes.
The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said on his part - in a video sent to a business conference in Milan - that if the M5S Executive and the League do not change these budgets the country risks "inevitably opening a procedure of infringement by the European Commission. "
"There are no elements that favor growth, I am worried, I see the isolation of the country from the rest of the European Union," he stressed.
The Commission asked Italy on 23 October a new budget plan for 2019, in an unprecedented decision.
