Italy's cabinet approves public finance program, calls for cautious budget approach

The Italian Council of Ministers has approved the Documento Programmatico di Finanza Pubblica together with the report on its deviation. Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgi​etti emphasized that the program is being adopted amid a particularly intricate set of circumstances, which complicates economic forecasting. He reaffirmed the goal of keeping the deficit under 3% of GDP in 2026, while acknowledging that, given the extra spending allowed by European rules, the deficit could increase in subsequent years, reaching 2.4% by 2029.

Giorgi​etti called for a slightly more prudent approach in preparing the upcoming Legge di Bilancio, noting that his daily monitoring may lead to changing assessments. The government also revised its growth outlook, lifting the 2026 GDP growth estimate to 1% and setting programmatic growth rates of 0.8% for 2027, 0.9% for 2028, and 0.8% for 2029.