(see related)
Premier Giuseppe Conte said
Wednesday that he did make any compromises on the key measures
in the government's budget plan as he reported to the Senate
after reaching a deal to prevent the European Commission opening
an infringement procedure against Italy.
"Over the last few weeks we worked to bring the positions
closer without ever moving backwards with respect to the
objectives the Italian people set us in the March 4 election,"
Conte said.
"We did not give way over the contents of the budget".
Conte said that Italy had agreed to run a deficit of 2.04% of
GDP next year under the agreement, compared to 2.4% in the
government's original budget plan.
But he said this would not make a difference to the plan to
bring in the 'citizenship wage' basic income for job seekers and
the 'quota 100' pension reform that will bring the retirement
age down for some groups of people early next year.
"The economic-financial estimates about the measures that
attracted the most attention of our European partners revealed
that the resources (needed) were less than forecast," Conte
said. "This made it possible to reduce the deficit from 2.4% to
around 2.04% without changing the contents, nor the people
eligible, nor the time frame of the two measures. "They will
start as planned".
Conte said that the government has revised down its GDP
growth forecast for Italy for 2019 from 1.5% to 1%.
"In the letter (I sent) to the European Commission, in
addition to new quantifications, I pointed out that amendments
will have to take account of the evolution of the macroeconomic
outlook and its deterioration, in particular due to the slowdown
in international trade," he said.
"The slowdown of the cycle takes next year's GDP (growth) to
1%".
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