• Gualtieri: "55 billion, a powerful intervention to help the country to restart"

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April 26, 2020 "An increase in the spread was inevitable, but was nevertheless contained and was also affected by the uncertainty about the European response", says the Minister of Economy, Roberto Gualtieri, in an interview with 'La Stampa'. "There is no risk in Italy. Our average interest rate on debt also this year - the minister explains - will continue to drop as it did in previous years. Our gross interest payments will see a slight increase next year, but if we consider the increasing portion of the debt held by the ECB, the payments, net of the portion that is transferred back to us by the Bank of Italy, will be in line with the current ones. This means that to ensure a rapid drop in our debt we will be able to return to a primary balance fully sustainable economically ".

The minister then underlines Italy's possibility of recovery: "We are facing a very heavy economic shock - said the minister - but it is a temporary shock, it will not affect our fundamentals which are solid, as shown by the deficit data at the moment of the outbreak of the crisis. The extraordinary public finance effort that we are putting in place is necessary precisely to safeguard our growth potential ".

"In the EU, steps forward, MES is only one of the tools. Crucial dimension of the Recovery Fund"
On MES, the minister continued, "the Government has united on the European negotiation. We said from the beginning that Italy needs financing common of common expenses, hence the centrality of the battle on the Recovery Fund. The MES is only one of the instruments in the field and not the main one and has the function of 'safety net' ". In Europe, "a decisive step forward that would have been unimaginable only a few weeks ago" was made, says Gualtieri, according to whom "the initiative of Conte and the Italian government was decisive, together with that of other countries. In addition to the fundamental role of the ECB and other instruments put in place, it is now acquired that the Recovery Fund will be established, with the aim of supporting the European recovery and in particular the most affected countries and sectors, and that for this purpose common debt securities will be issued European. " It is only the beginning of a path, explains Gualtieri: "Of course - he says - the question of the size of the fund, the share of the 'grants', which must be absolutely prevalent for us, and the timing of its implementation, is now crucial. which must allow us to leave already in the summer. Moreover, the European Council itself, accepting Conte's request, recognized the urgency, as well as the necessity, of the Fund itself. We have the real possibility of moving towards a true fiscal union and the crisis , as happened in other times in history, it is playing the role of a powerful accelerator of processes that seemed blocked. It is crucial that the results live up to these expectations ".