Green light from the Council of Ministers to Economic and financial document 2023: the first real act of economic policy by the Meloni Government, which provides the macro framework and which outlines the measures that the Executive intends to carry out and on whose September update (the Nadef) the next Budget Law will then be based. Also on the agenda are two bills: the first proposed by the Ministry of Culture against the acts of eco-vandalism on works of art, the second containing interventions in support of competitiveness of capital (so-called “stock exchange decree”). Furthermore, after 2000 landings in the last 48 hours, the Government has launched the state of emergency throughout the national territory.
By Thursday 13 April, the executive will have to find the balance on the renewals of the public shareholdings which is causing fibrillation in the majority.
Def: 2023 additional resources for tax wedge cut
The watchword is "prudence" in the face of an uncertain 2023 and a 2024 which will sanction the definitive exit from the emergency state and the return of the Stability Pact. There programmatic growth it will reach 2023% in 1 (the Def at the end of last November formulated a projection on that figure of +0,6%). For what concerns the deficit/GDP ratio the Government confirms the net debt targets set out in last November's document: 4,5% in 2023, 3,7 in 2024, 3 in 2025, up to 2,5% in 2026. Against an estimated deficit trend for the current year equal to 4,35% of GDP, maintaining the existing deficit target would make it possible to find a few more resources (about 3 billion) which will make it possible to "introduce, with a provision soon to be implemented, a cut in contributions social security payable by employees with medium-low incomes”. For 2024, however, the Def estimates a downward programmatic GDP growth of +1,4% against 1,9%, while the deficit stands at over 3%. The debt in the meantime, a slow reduction will continue until reaching "2025% in 140,9".
Among the variables that will impact growth is the Pnrr. For weeks at the center of a political dispute over delays in tenders that would jeopardize the use of part of European resources. Last week, the latest Italian Macroeconomic Bulletin drafted by EY also warned that if resources in the Pnrr are spent for 70% and 90% of what is forecast in 2023 and 2024, GDP may not grow this year and will resume '1,8% next. If, on the other hand, around 50% of the forecast is used, the Italian economy would return to growth in 2024 at a rate of 1,5%, after a contraction of 0,3% in 2023.
Migration: the Government declares a state of emergency
On the proposal of the Minister for Civil Protection and Marine Policies Nello Musumeci, the government approved the state of emergency throughout the national territory following the exceptional increase in the flows of migrant people through the Mediterranean routes. "We have gladly complied with the request of Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, well aware of the seriousness of a phenomenon which is registering a 300% increase", said Musumeci, adding that "the problem cannot be solved, the solution of which is linked only to a conscious and responsible intervention by the European Union”. The state of emergency, supported by an initial loan of five million euros, will last for six months.
The clampdown against acts of eco-vandalism on works of art
The Government also approved the bill with "sanctioning provisions on the destruction, dispersion, deterioration, disfigurement, soiling and illicit use of cultural or landscape assets" and outlines a strict: fines ranging from 20 to 60 thousand euros, plus penal sanctions, for those who destroy, disperse, deteriorate or render "wholly or partly unusable or unusable cultural property" and other administrative sanctions, which go from 10 to 40 thousand euros for anyone who "defaces or defaces" these assets "or assigns them to a use prejudicial to their conservation or incompatible with their historical or artistic character. The proceeds from the fines will be destined for the Ministry of Culture so that they can be used for the restoration of the assets" .
Capital bill, simplified rules for listing on the Stock Exchange
Green light also at ddl Capitals which provides for the "simplification of the procedures for admission to listing" on the stock exchange and other regulated markets. In particular, the threshold for the classification of SMEs listed on the stock exchange or on regulated markets has risen from 500 million to 1 billion euro. Also envisaged is the "dematerialisation of SME shares, which may "exist in scriptural form" as envisaged by the TUF.
The financial education it becomes a program in schools on a par with civic education. In particular, the guidelines for the teaching of financial education will be defined "in agreement with the Bank of Italy and Consob and after consultation with the most representative associations of banking and financial operators and users". Furthermore, the Committee for the planning and coordination of financial education activities established by law 15 of 2017 is responsible for approving the "three-year activity plan". It is then up to the Ministry of Education to sign agreements with Bank of Italy and Consob to "promote the culture of financial education, in compliance with school autonomy and within the limits of available resources" after having heard the committee.
