The first budget approved by Italy’s new right-wing government on Tuesday focuses on lowering sky-high energy costs and lowering taxes for salaried people and the self-employed starting in 2019.
Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, is hoping the increase in spending will hasten the recovery of the third-largest economy in the euro zone, which the Treasury predicts will decrease in the current quarter and the first quarter of 2019.
After a three-hour cabinet meeting, the budget bill was adopted at about half past midnight (23:30 GMT), according to Meloni’s office. The next step is for the parliament to approve it by the end of the year.
Rome intends to fund about 60% of the measures, amounting to a total of nearly 35 billion euros ($35.84 billion), by increasing the budget deficit for the following year from the 3.4% predicted in September to 4.5% of GDP.
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