Giorgetti: possible deficit below 3 per cent of GDP this year

'A deficit/GDP below 3% is possible this year'. These are the words of Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti speaking to the press on the sidelines of the Ecofin proceedings. "There is no fantasy," on this, "if we have the opportunity to get out of the excessive deficit procedure it is in Italy's interest to take it," he added. "We are in September, to get to December there is still something missing, of course all the turbulence at the global level has not helped us as far as exports are concerned and therefore for growth, three months are missing, let's also see the next Istat data on the third quarter, however the opportunity to exit the procedure is a historic opportunity, I think it should be seized."

 The tax cut "everyone is asking for it, if it were up to me I would abolish taxes, but it can't be done: the budget is made up of income and expenditure, an overall framework in which I have objectives, the government has objectives, but I also have the responsibility, as Fitch's judgement shows, to keep the path (of public accounts) safe, so these things will be done with the path to safety". So said Giorgetti, responding to journalists who asked him to clarify his position on Salvini's call for a reduction in Irpef rates as early as the next financial manoeuvre. The minister then referred to one of his Argentine finance minister colleagues who 'abolished taxes by decree the day before the elections and then lost them'. And anyway, to reinforce the concept, "there is no treasury to spend: we can do things that if the spread had remained at 250 points we could not have done". The message is firmly reiterated. "I know how to manoeuvre the rudder, so I have a precise course, at least as long as I am Captain Boatswain'.

'Given what they earn' the banks 'have no reason to be worried' in view of the Budget Law. "I once spoke of a pinch and someone took it badly, but in my house pinches were also something affectionate, not exactly a slap," the minister points out. "Italy is a system: if there is coherence, cohesion and cooperation between the various institutions we can do many things," he notes, recalling that also "the standing of the Italian banking system has improved in recent years also thanks to the government". "Those who work in the banking system imagine what contribution they can make," he went on to explain. So they already know? "Since they are intelligent people...".

For Giorgetti, 'it is absolutely unthinkable to make cuts in the welfare state, in particular in healthcare, for the benefit of defence'. Speaking at the Open Festival, the minister insists on the line. 'What can be assessed at Defence is additional', so much so that 'Europe, after long discussion, has prepared a different treatment of Defence spending'.

We have privatised without privatising'. With regard to the Mps-Mediobanca affair, according to Giorgetti, 'the market has positively assessed this public offer with an adhesion that has gone beyond all reasonable expectations, we did not have control before, much less do we have it now'. As for the relations prior to the operation between the government and Mps, 'if we voted in favour in the shareholders' meeting, it means that they thought the operation was a positive thing, as the market later testified'.