12/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The new Italian Minister for the Economy, Giulio Tremonti, in a television speech on Wednesday evening, announced that the Italian budgetary deficit could, this year, reach ITL 62,000 billion (EUR 32 billion), namely 43,000 billion more than what had been forecasted by the previous government. This unusual procedure caused serious reactions from trade unions, which have just taken part in a roundtable with Mr Tremonti over the Berlusconi government's Economic and Financial programming document, and who said they received, on this occasion, only "general" indications over this document. I would have liked to go before the Parliament, but I was forced to speak, in the face of the carrousel of figures that I saw circulating and which risked creating plenty of problems, also on the international level, replied Mr Tremonti. On Tuesday, during the meeting of the Eurogroup in Brussels, the Minister did not want to give figures, but and assured that Italy would work to achieve a balanced budget in 2003 (see EUROPE of 11 July, p.7).