Padoan blasts 'intolerable' conjecture on finances

(ANSA) - Salerno, November 16 - Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Thursday that speculation about the state of Italy's public finances has become unacceptable. "The finances are improving and this is a fact," Padoan told a meeting of industrialists in the southern city of Salerno.
    "The confusion between facts and conjecture is becoming intolerable. "We don't want to hide anything, the country is improving.
    "The current parliament that is closing will offer the following one an objectively better outlook in terms of growth and public finances".
    Padoan said Thursday that he was "strangely optimistic", while adding that the results achieved on the economic front should not lead to "self satisfaction" but should be see as "a starting point to regain momentum".
    "Up to now there has been a strategy that has produced results, putting together the consolidation of the public finances with growth," he said.