Italy's GDP will drop by over 8% this
year, Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said Wednesday.
He said this was much better than previous forecasts of a drop
of 11-13%.
Those forecasts, he said, had been done before the length of the
COVID lockdown was known.
After a big contraction in the second quarter, Gualtieri said
there would be a "strong rebound" in the third quarter.
The minister reiterated that the government would implement a
major tax reform.
He said this would start by cutting the tax wedge.
"There will be a big rebound in the third quarter, and we will
press ahead with the tax reform," he said.
The government is lining up projects for a national recovery
plan to take advantage of the biggest chunk, some 200 billion
euros, of the European Union's 750 billion COVID Recovery Fund
next year.
The European Commission is confident that Italy will be up to
the challenge posed by the COVID emergency and will make the
best use of the EU's Recovery Fund, Commissioner for Economic
Affairs Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday in addressing the House on
the priorities the government must indicate to tap into the
fund.
He said we are in a phase of relaunching the economy but a
general "climate of uncertainty" reigns, also in Italy.
"We are confident that the country will be up to the
challenges", said Gentiloni.
The Commission, he said, asks the Italian government, in
compiling its reform programme, "to indicate its choices within
the framework of priorities".
It should not just issue a spending list, Gentiloni said.
Italy has a unique chance to restart by getting the largest
chunk of the 750 billion fund, he said.
"Let us not think we can use the 200 billion to cut taxes, it
would really be the wrong message," he said.
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