ZCZC
BCN-03
ITALY-EU-BUDGET-DEBT
Italian Salvini “does not care” if EU rejects budget
ROME, Sept 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Italy’s powerful deputy prime minister
Matteo Salvini said Saturday “I do not care” if the European Commission
rejects a budget plan that would worsen Rome’s already mammoth debt burden.
“No one in Brussels can tell me it is not time,” the head of the far-right
League party told a meeting in the Italian capital.
“If Brussels says I cannot do it, I do not care, I will do it anyway,” the
outspoken leader vowed.
Italy’s new coalition government has drafted a budget that raises
spending, pushes the public deficit target to around 2.4 percent of gross
domestic product for the next three years, and probably hikes the public debt
above its already excessive level of 131 percent of GDP.
The previous government was aiming for a deficit of 0.8 percent of GDP
that would help cut debt but possibly hamper economic growth.
A warning by EU officials on Friday about Italy’s deficit troubled
financial markets and pushed up the cost of borrowing for the government.
“It is a budget which appears to be beyond the limits of our shared
rules,” noted Pierre Moscovici, who runs the European Commission’s economic
and finance portfolio.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella warned the government Saturday that
the constitution requires a balanced budget and sustainable public debt.
Salvini quickly responded, saying that after years of having its budget
imposed by European leaders “we have finally changed course and are betting
on the future and on growth.”
The Commission estimates that Italy’s economy will grow by just 1.1
percent next year.
BSS/AFP/HR/0922