Fiscal consolidation efforts in Italy need to step up. This was stated by the European Central Bank in its latest monthly bulletin, according to which Italy must "ensure sufficient progress towards the medium-term objectives and observance of the debt parameter".
According to the ECB, in Italy the deficit-to-GDP ratio remained unchanged at 3% last year, while the debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 132,6%: "In the update of the stability program for 2014, the government made a significant increase to the 2014 deficit target (to 2,6 per cent of GDP, from 1,8 previously forecast), while leaving the 2015 target virtually unchanged at 1,8 per cent of GDP".
As regards 2014, according to the central institute, "the planned structural intervention is lower than the requirements established by the preventive mechanism of the Stability and Growth Pact, while it would be substantially compliant in 2015".
Furthermore, Italy is one of the six Euroland countries in which from 2009 to 2013 “there was a protracted decline in household income”. According to the ECB bulletin, the other states are Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Slovenia. Instead, five countries (Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland) in which since 2010 "robust growth in household disposable income" has been recorded.
Furthermore, once again, the central bank has assured its willingness "to also resort to non-conventional instruments, within the framework of its mandate, if it should still be necessary to face risks associated with an excessively prolonged period of low inflation".
