Italy Braces for Potential Fiscal Adjustments and Intensifies Anti-Tax Evasion Efforts

Amid concerns of Eurostat rulings impacting its budget, Italy plans to expedite tax evasion reduction and may revise its growth target downwards.

Italy's Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warns that future accounting rulings by Eurostat could increase Italy's budget deficit from 2024 onward, forcing a restrictive rewrite of the 2024 budget.
Giorgetti highlights the need for fiscal rules that can accommodate exceptional events as EU's fiscal rules, suspended since 2020 due to the pandemic, are set to return next year.
Italy plans to reduce tax evasion more quickly than initially promised as part of commitments for post-COVID-19 EU recovery funds, as it renegotiates with Brussels after falling behind in spending recovery cash.
Giorgetti indicates a possible downward revision of Italy's growth target for this year, which was set at 0.8% in September, following the country's economic stagnation in the third quarter.
The Italian government aims to strengthen the already ambitious targets to reduce the 'tax gap' and recoup up to 10 billion euros more in 2024 compared to 2019.