Italy: The Italian caretaker government approved, on Thursday evening, a new package of new additional aid to support the social and productive sectors in the face of the wave of high prices, inflation and the repercussions of high energy prices.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at a press conference that his government had approved the “biss aid decree” with allocations of 15 billion euros with two additional measures, with a total of 17 billion euros in addition to about 35 billion euros already approved by other decrees during the year.
Draghi added that the new aid package constitutes “a large percentage of the gross domestic product, more than two percentage points,” stressing that the aforementioned decree has “extraordinary dimensions” resulting from the sharing of the measures it includes with social parties, majority parties and the opposition.
He explained that the decree includes the extension of subsidies to bills, measures to control fuel prices, a reassessment of pensions, and another reduction in the tax burden on work more than what was presented to the Council of Ministers. It also includes measures to support agricultural companies against drought and measures to assist local authorities.
He stated that managing the appropriations of this decree did not require any change or resorting to any modification in the budget items due to the better economic performance than estimated and the increase in treasury resources.
In this regard, Draghi pointed out that the annual growth achieved so far in the gross domestic product amounted to 3.4 percent, more than what is expected for the whole of 2022.
He said that the Italian economic growth data “is very positive even compared to all other countries, which is considered truly exceptional growth” because Italy “will achieve more growth than France and Germany and higher than the European average” despite the presence of clouds on the horizon “we are preparing to face in the third quarter.” And the fourth of the year.
It is noteworthy that Draghi was forced on July 21 to submit the resignation of the national unity government that he had headed since February 2021, after three parties withdrew from the expanded coalition when the previous aid decree was approved of about 20 billion euros.
