Italy to target 2025 GDP growth of up to 1.4%, paper says
08/09/2024 08:45
MILAN, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Italy is expected to set an
economic growth target for 2025 of 1.3% or 1.4% as part of its
medium-term structural budget plan to be submitted to the
European Commission by Sept. 20, Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore
reported on Sunday.
Excluding policy changes, Rome expects growth of 1.1% next
year, the newspaper added, lower than a projection of 1.2% made
in April. The final target is slightly higher than that,
however, as Rome plans to approve tax cuts to support the
public's purchasing power and boost domestic demand.
The plan will also provide an updated framework for Italy's
strained public finances.
Italy's Treasury was not immediately available for comment.
Rome was put under a so-called Excessive Deficit Procedure
by the EU this year, and the Treasury's plan, which is aimed at
cutting the fiscal gap in line with EU prescriptions, must also
comply with the latest reform of the bloc's fiscal rules.
The infringement procedure obliges Italy to cut its
structural budget deficit net of one-off factors and business
cycle fluctuations by 0.5% or 0.6% of GDP per year.
Sources told Reuters late last month that in its medium-term
structural budget plan, the government of Prime Minister Giorgia
Meloni would stick to a commitment to bring its deficit-to-GDP
ratio below the EU's 3% ceiling in 2026.
Il Sole 24 Ore reported that Italy's deficit-to-GDP ratio
could fall below 4% this year against the expected 4.3% estimate
made in April due to a positive trend in tax revenues.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by
Hugh Lawson)
((gianluca.semeraro@tr.com; +39 06 80 307 741;))