Between 2009 and 2013, the lack of growth in the Italian GDP exceeded 230 billion and this translated into a drop in tax revenues of almost 90 billion less, despite the pressure having increased by more than one point in terms of GDP. This year, moreover, the balanced budget has not been achieved by almost 50 billion. This was stated by the president of the Court of Auditors, Luigi Giampaolino, in the preface to the 2013 Report on the coordination of public finance.
Those 230 billion, explained Giampaolino, are "a summary figure that provides an immediate perception of the difficulties of managing the public budget while the economy is no longer growing". The repeated corrective measures, however, according to the accounting judiciary have "allowed for significant cost savings, the level of which in 2012 was more than 40 billion lower than the initial estimates. Even in this case, however, the yielding of the product did not permit any reduction in the incidence of expenditure on GDP, which fell from 47,8 to 51,2% in the three-year period”.
Giampaolino then added that our country has "failed to achieve the planned balanced budget, with a net indebtedness that ended up being almost 50 billion higher than the original target, even if, at least with regard to the balances, the comparison with the other European countries places Italy in a virtuous position, close only to Germany”.
In any case, “what Italy needs from Europe are stimuli to grow more, not exceptions to spend more – continued the President -. After all, even before facing probable resistance from the European authorities and partners, it would be the markets themselves that would punish the departure from a recovery path by countries, such as Italy, so exposed in terms of public debt”.
