On the sidelines of the meeting with his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici, the Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli commented on the new Istat estimates on the slowdown in Italy's GDP, stating that “the worsening of the estimates does not change the achievement of the budgetary structural objectives”.
"Today's data reflect the global slowdown of the economy" continued Grilli, referring to the negative economic situation in the first half of the year, "but in any case the budget targets were defined in structural terms, i.e. net of the effects of the economic cycle" .
When asked about the debt, Grilli asserted that Italy it will keep its commitments without having to resort to the assistance of the ECB in the form of a purchase of Bonds, as already stated by Premier Mario Monti.
