ROME: The Italian government on Saturday gave its go-ahead for a bill to pay back €40 billion in debts owed to the private sector over the next 12 months in a bid to stimulate growth. “The cabinet meeting today approved an urgent decree to pay back the debts of the public sector to the private sector,” Prime Minister Mario Monti told a press conference after the talks. The bill had been eagerly awaited by Italy’s business community under pressure from the Italy’s longest post-war recession and a lack of available credit from banks. The bill sped up the timetable for the payments to €40 billion ($52 billion) over one year instead of two years, the period proposed previously. The parliament still must give final approval. The repayment increases Italy’s forecast deficit to 2.9% of GDP from 2.4% earlier, Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli said, which is still below the deficit threshold of 3.0% mandated by the European Union.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2013.
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