No need for blood-and-tears budget says Giorgetti

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 9 - The government will not have to pass an austerity budget for 2025 to get Italy's public finances on track, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Tuesday, adding that the country was on track to hit the target of GDP growth of 1% this year.
    "We do not need a blood-and-tears budget, we need a serious policy of public spending control in order for Italy to emerge from its condition of being a country always under scrutiny," Giorgetti told the assembly of Italian banking association ABI.
    "This is a goal that can be achieved with determination," he continued, saying the success of the BTP Valore bonds the government has issued showed "how our country has already seen its efforts recognised by Italian and foreign savers".
    The European Commission said last month that Italy was one of seven countries it was opening of a deficit-based excessive deficit procedure against after it posted a deficit of 7.2% last year.
    Giorgetti had said the procedure was to be expected with return of the EU budget rules that had been suspended due to the COVID and Ukraine-war linked energy-price crises.
    On Tuesday the minister also said that "the GDP growth target growth target of 1% for 2024 set out in the DEF (economic blueprint) is within our reach".
    (see related). (ANSA).