Coronavirus, the EU letter to Italy: "Budget policy remains expansive also in 2021"

2021-02-11T21:47:12.491Z

"The fiscal policy setting must remain expansionary in support of the recovery also in 2021". This is the orientation reaffirmed by the Brussels Commission contained in the response of the Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, to the letter of 20 January from the Minister of Economy, Roberto Gualtieri, to illustrate to the European Commission the decision to propose to the Italian Parliament a report to obtain authorization for the deviation from the programmatic deficit envisaged in the Update Note to the DEF (Nadef) 2020 "We are confident that the rapid start of the vaccination companion can lay the foundations to end the pandemic and thus pave the way for recovery ", is what we read in the letter. In this context, "the Recovery Fund can represent an opportunity for Member States to undertake ambitious reforms and lay the foundations for solid and sustainable growth". "Given Italy's high public debt - it continues - it is particularly important that the effectiveness and adequacy of the support measures are periodically reviewed in order to ensure the most efficient use of resources". The EU Commission "acknowledges that in light of the revision of the budget targets for 2021, the government has forecast that the debt / GDP ratio will remain substantially stable this year before recording a decline starting in 2022". Furthermore, the EU Commission notes "that the GDP deficit targets for the next few years will remain unchanged as well as the debt reduction strategy in the medium to long term and in particular the commitment to bring the debt / GDP ratio back to 2019 levels in 2030" . Precisely for this reason, it continues, "relaunching Italy's potential growth is particularly important in this perspective".