Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced late Friday a 30 billion euro package to help families and businesses save as much as possible from rising energy costs.
One third of this figure will be specifically earmarked for aid while the other additional 21 billion euros will be incorporated into the 2023 General Budget, as announced in the revision of Nadef, the Economic and Financial Document, approved yesterday at the Council of Ministers.
To finance the measures, Meloni and his government team intend to take on additional debt next year at the expense of a deficit of 4.5 percent instead of the planned 3.4 percent, according to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, who expects the percentage to fall to 3 percent in 2025.
At a press conference reported by ‘La Repubblica’, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister acknowledged that the country is facing the threat of economic recession but stressed that Italy is not an exceptional case.
«It is being mentioned by many parties at the global and European level. It could also touch Italy. We are prepared to face these risks, that is why we are presenting ourselves to Parliament with a responsible attitude,» Giorgetti explained.
At the same time, the Italian Minister of Energy, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, has announced expansion plans for the extraction of natural gas deposits off the coast of Italy. Specifically, he estimates an additional extraction of 500 million cubic meters of gas in the short term, which would increase to 15 billion cubic meters over the next 10 years.
