ANSA: GDP to return to pre-COVID levels in 2022 says Gualtieri

ROME. KAZINFORM - The 2021 budget will have an impact on GDP of 2% next year, or some 35 billion euros thanks to Italy getting the biggest chunk of the EU's Recovery Fund, according to the update of the DEF economic and financial plan approved by cabinet Monday night, ANSA reports.

The budget will include many Green measures aimed at securing the 209 billion euros from the Recovery Fund's 750 billion total allocation.

GDP will take a double-digit hit this year but recover to show 6% growth next year.

Public debt will fall to 155.6% of GDP next year.

As for measures against the COVID pandemic, there will be no more «selective closures» but only «precautionary measures,» the DEF update said.

These latter measures will be «less drastic than those of last spring», when the pandemic was in its initial surge and a full two month lockdown was imposed.

Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri stressed «in 2022 the level of GDP of the year before the pandemic will be recovered».

Gualtieri also proposed a fiscal pact that will reward «fiscal good faith» in the form of tax cuts.

Premier Giuseppe Conte has already announced a raft of Green measures to make the post-COVID economy more sustainable.

The coronavirus has sparked an unprecedented recession and GDP is set to fall by 10-13% this year according to various forecasts.

The government has vowed to do its utmost to pull the economy out of the recession.

It has promised tax cuts for the middle classes.