Comments by Italy's finance minister Giovanni Tria
- Goal is to cut debt-to-GDP by 4.5% in 3 years
Well, if those estimates are already deemed conservative by their standards, then I'm not sure what their base case or optimistic scenario would be. Right now, even their "conservative" estimates are hard to buy and the European Commission is most likely to reject the draft budget proposal if it remains this way.
Some key deadlines to watch out for in the coming weeks on Italy's budget:
15 October - Italy submitted 2019 draft budget proposal
22 October - European Commission has a week to make their concerns known to Italy
29 October - European Commission has up to two weeks to reject Italy's submission
Also, after the commission rejects the proposal, Italy will have up to three weeks to respond with a revised budget. So by the end of all of this, we could very well be staring at the European Commission still having to review Italy's budgetary plans in December.
