The Italian government released a total of an additional 9.1 billion euros on Thursday night to fight rising energy prices, an Economy Ministry press release published after a Council of Ministers announced.
The decree-law adopted by the government thus provides tax credits for companies and other diverse activities, such as bars, restaurants or shops, for the purchase of gas and electricity. It also provides for the maintenance of the reduction in special taxes on fuels until December 31.
Public deficit higher than expected
In addition to the section that provides for this economic aid, the Government of Giorgia Meloni has also decided “with a view to increasing the national production of natural gas” to authorize new concessions for the extraction of gas in the sea and to increase the quantities of gas extracted from concessions already operational.
These 9,100 million euros of support from the Government of Meloni to families and companies are added to the 66,000 million euros that the Government of his predecessor, Mario Draghi, had already spent in 2022 with the same objective.
To release these additional resources that will be financed with debt, the minister raised the country’s public deficit forecast for 2023 to 4.5% of GDP, compared to the 3.4% forecast in September by the Draghi government.
A month ago, however, the Italian employers had requested aid measures of “40 to 50 billion euros” by 2023 to avoid the bankruptcy of “thousands of companies” and the loss of “hundreds of thousands of jobs” .
Source: BFM TV
