Italy and seven other EU countries
have sent the European Commission (EC) a joint letter requesting
a review of the method of calculating the output gap, sources
said Thursday.
The output gap is an indicator used to assess budget
adjustments for countries the EC says are failing to meet their
objectives.
The eight countries asked the EC to "eliminate the time
discrepancy" between how it calculates structural surplus (based
on two years) and the way individual countries do (based on four
years).
The other signatories to the letter sent last Friday are
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and
Spain.
Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told Le Figaro
paper in an interview out Thursday that the European Union's
system for calculating debt and budget targets damages Italy and
should be changed.
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