Italy economy minister says government won’t alter 2018 budget path

ROME (Reuters) – The new Italian government will not adopt measures to lower this year’s budget deficit, as requested by the European Commission, and is also ready to raise next year’s deficit goal, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said on Tuesday.

“The government doesn’t have the intention of adopting corrective measures for this year,” Tria told a parliamentary panel.

The Commission has asked Italy to lower its structural deficit – adjusted for the business cycle and one-off items – by an additional 0.3 percentage points of gross domestic product in 2018, and Tria had previously said he would be ready to meet the request if necessary.

Tria said the deficit so far was fully in line with the target of the previous center-left government and he planned to ensure the structural balance did not worsen and that Italy’s public debt comes down.

For 2019, he said the current goal to reduct the deficit to 0.8 percent of gross domestic product from 1.6 percent this year appeared “too drastic”.

He said the present official forecast that the economy would grow 1.5 percent this year would probably have to be revised down, and confirmed the government would seek license to spend more from the EU to carry out its program next year.

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