“In 2015, after three continuous years of contraction, the Italian economy returned to growth. In 2016 the recovery will continue and consolidate”. The Economy Minister said, Pier Carlo Padoan, in the hearing on the 2016 Def before the House and Senate Budget Committees.
In first quarter 2016, continued Padoan, growth seems to have regained momentum, with industrial production on the rise, an expansive trend in consumption, and business surveys show that investments will grow. The minister underlined that “employment increases, the unemployment rate decreases, public finances improve, the tax burden decreases. The Government maintains a rigorous fiscal policy accompanied by expansionary measures and reforms to restart the country. This happens even if in recent months the international situation has shown evident signs of worsening”.
The main objective of the government's strategy, Padoan assured, “is the revival of growth and employment” with “a constant action of structural reforms in the country”. Four tools, explained the minister: the stimulus to public and private investments, the consolidation of public finances, the reduction of the tax burden associated with a constant spending review and the improvement of the competitive capacity of the system.
"The sterilization of the safeguard clauses – Padoan underlined again – will happen by implementing an alternative maneuver that will be defined in the coming months. This will guarantee a net debt equal to 1,8% of GDP in 2017, through public spending review measures, including tax expenditures and interventions that increase compliance by reducing the margins of tax evasion and avoidance. This will be achieved compatibly with budget balances and with the process of reducing the tax burden on households and businesses”.
La change in the structural balance “envisaged today constitutes a deviation, but not a significant one”, according to the minister, “but compatible with the provisions of the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact. The medium-term objective for countries with debt exceeding 60% of GDP would require that the balance improve by 0,5 percentage points: the Government deems it inappropriate and counterproductive” in a framework of programmatic strengthening of the recovery. Padoan explained that the structural balance based on the new forecasts would result down by about 0,7 percentage points: in this sense the last indication of the European Commission "must be reconsidered taking into account the requests made within the maximum limits of flexibility according to the agreement between countries and approved by Ecofin".
As for the “reduction of debt stocks of the public administrations – continued the minister – remains a priority objective of the Government and fundamental for the confidence of the markets”. On the side of the investments, on the other hand, “Italy is the country of the Union which has so far made the greatest use of the Juncker plan".
“There are margins – Padoan said – to think about tools and incentives, e on the links between the pension system and the labor market to improve the possibilities” of both those who must enter and those who must leave. Padoan said he was "certainly in favor of a complex reasoning" on the subject of pensions and "open to sources of complementary financing" for possible measures, such as the one suggested in the questions of the parliamentarians, of a role for the credit system. The system is "one of the pillars of sustainability" but "there are margins".
La digital tax "it is in the interest of the government", which is considering the results of international analyses, starting with that of the OECD: "It is a complicated tax – concluded Padoan – but we are certainly considering this aspect".
