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Italy cuts deficit target for 2019 to 2.04% to avoid EU sanctions
Source: The Guardian
Italy cuts deficit target for 2019 to 2.04% to avoid EU sanctions
Bonds rally after Rome bows to pressure but EU says more needs to be done
Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Thu 13 Dec 2018 13.14 GMT
The Italian government will be forced to cut “a few billion” across two of its flagship policies to meet the lower deficit target it has proposed to the European commission.
Italian bonds rallied after the government bowed to pressure to reduce its deficit target for 2019 to stave off EU sanctions. The country’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, proposed cutting the target from 2.4% to 2.04%.
“We have recovered some financial resources, we have been very prudent,” Conte said after meeting the European commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, in Brussels on Wednesday. “And we are now using these financial resources for this negotiation.”
-snip-
Italy’s industry minister, Dario Galli, said the bulk of the spending cuts needed to meet the lower deficit target would be most likely to hit the government’s proposed universal basic income, intended to give €780 (£700) a month to the unemployed, and the proposal to cut the retirement age.
-snip-
Bonds rally after Rome bows to pressure but EU says more needs to be done
Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Thu 13 Dec 2018 13.14 GMT
The Italian government will be forced to cut “a few billion” across two of its flagship policies to meet the lower deficit target it has proposed to the European commission.
Italian bonds rallied after the government bowed to pressure to reduce its deficit target for 2019 to stave off EU sanctions. The country’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, proposed cutting the target from 2.4% to 2.04%.
“We have recovered some financial resources, we have been very prudent,” Conte said after meeting the European commission president, Jean Claude Juncker, in Brussels on Wednesday. “And we are now using these financial resources for this negotiation.”
-snip-
Italy’s industry minister, Dario Galli, said the bulk of the spending cuts needed to meet the lower deficit target would be most likely to hit the government’s proposed universal basic income, intended to give €780 (£700) a month to the unemployed, and the proposal to cut the retirement age.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/13/italy-cuts-deficit-target-for-2019-to-204-to-avoid-eu-sanctions