The reaction of the European Commission to the statements by Prime Minister Letta, who confirms the decision to keep the deficit below the 3% threshold by the end of the year, is positive. The EU executive "welcomes the prime minister's firm commitment to ensure that the budget objectives will be achieved in 2013".
The data that emerged today, however, are in contrast with the objectives. The government revised the 2013 GDP negatively, from -1,3% to -1,7%, and assumed a "trend" overshoot of the deficit ceiling: its ratio to GDP should rise to 3,1%.
"The interruption of the fall in rates and the resumption of political instability weigh on the accounts and for this reason we have not been able to write 3% today" in the Economic and Financial Document (Def) - explained the premier - "but there is the commitment to stay under the limits imposed by the EU. There is a confirmed commitment to maintain the agreements made with European partners and with the European Union”.
And the European Commission at the moment trusts Italy, because as the Italian Prime Minister himself has argued, the goal is ambitious but achievable, provided there is political stability.
