European Interest

How Italy may reduce deficit

Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0
The Ministry of Economy and Finance, Rome, Italy.

Italy may be able to reduce its budget deficit. According to one government source this may be possible if two pillars of the Italian government’s 2019 budget should prove less costly than envisaged.

As reported by the Reuters news agency, an early retirement option and a “citizens’ wage” income support scheme has been allocated around €17bn in the budget.

However, the details of these measures, as well as their timing, have not yet been fixed, and some of the funds may not be used if the reforms are not launched until later in year.

Any unused money may be dedicated to lowering the budget deficit below the official target of 2.4% of gross domestic product, said the government source.

Explore more