Matteo Salvini, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister, told Radio24 on Monday 3 September that the nominal Italian deficit will be below 3% of GDP in 2019.
This the announcement by a senior member of the Italian government aims in particular to reassure the country's European partners, who are somewhat concerned at the economic programme that the coalition government, made up of members of the Five Star Movement and the League May set in place.
“The government intends to keep to the commitments already made, but we talked about getting very close to the limit, but not exceeding it”, he said.
These comments follow those by finance minister Giovanni Tria, who said the day before that his government's economic guidelines would not affect Italian budgetary stability.
Readers may recall that Italy must comply with the rules of the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, which require the member states covered by them to reduce their structural deficits by 0.6% of GDP every year. Last year, the Italian nominal deficit stood at 2.3% of GDP. The government debt ratio, another central question for Rome, is expected to stand this year at 130.7% of GDP (see EUROPE 12014).
Like all Eurozone states, the Italian government must submit its draft budget for 2019 to the Commission by 15 October. It will be paid particularly close attention by the institution. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)