Giorgetti: next manoeuvre will be serious and responsible. Panetta: positive effects from IA but risks for employment

"The next manoeuvre will not be tears and blood but serious and responsible, like the two previous ones. Certainly there are complications arising from the application of the new stability pact but it does not change the perspective. We had already foreseen the consequences of the return of the 3 per cent rule'. So said Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in an interview with Ansa on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio. On the Italian portfolio in the next European Commission, 'the process has started, with the request for names. It is known that Italy, as a great founding country, is entitled to have an important position. And it is known that we ask for economic portfolios. Reconfirming the portfolio that now belongs to Gentiloni (Economic Affairs, ed.), seems unlikely to me'. This is the further reflection that Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti delivers on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio de Janeiro. "If we look at five months ago, we had a significant Italian presence in the economic dimension, both in the European Parliament and in the Commission. In Parliament it was lost,' he says. 'In the Commission that kind of position will probably be lost, but clearly there are others under discussion'.

As for the Italian public accounts, on a greater flow of tax revenues than expected, Giorgetti is cautious. 'We are waiting,' he explained, 'for the self-assessment at the end of July. It's important to understand how that one goes, when individuals and companies make their balance sheets and find out how much they have to pay in taxes and make the down payments for the following year. We will talk again in August, that is the moment of truth'.

There is also room for a broader reflection on the fate of the EU. "The world is changing rapidly, the geopolitical and geo-economic balances are being redefined, and the European Union, if it wants to play both an economic and political role, must set a clear course for itself," is the economy minister's assessment. 'More or less the birth of the European Commission is equivalent to a birth,' he adds, 'it takes about nine months. The only European institution that is running smoothly on its own is the central bank: everything else is struggling to find a clear governance'.

The Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, on the sidelines of the G20 in Rio de Janeiro, indicated that the technological issue is 'closely linked to economic security'. And he explained that 'with artificial intelligence we are facing possible strong revolutions in the digital field. How this will affect the economy, it is too early to say. Everyone expects it to have a positive effect, but with a number of risks, in terms of concentration of power, possible inequalities and effects on employment'.

"We must react to the economic fragmentation at global level, which may increase in the coming months due to political changes in major countries, with negative effects on growth," Panetta added. And again: 'We need to define trade agreements that are acceptable to the different parties but do not restrict growth and the availability of goods and services. And above all that they do not fuel inflation again: right now the central banks are completing disinflation, a new acceleration in consumer prices would hurt everyone'.