Gualtieri: “The rebound in GDP in the third quarter will be greater than expected”

As for the fourth quarter, Gualtieri called the forecast “positive but cautious.”

“The ambition is for Italy to come out of the crisis better than before” “The ambition is high and the commitment is not to bring us back to that Italy from the first crisis that was not strong, fair and safe, but the commitment is to get out of the emergency in a better country,” added Gualtieri. Emphasizing that “a joint effort is necessary and in these weeks there will be an intense confrontation with the country’s forces.” The “budgetary strategy will be medium-term and will also indicate a significant path of reduction, of a solid and sustainable decline in the debt / GDP ratio.”

Speaking about the Recovery Fund, the minister explained that “we have a clear determination to make the best use of them and to use them to the maximum so as not to spread them in a thousand streams and concentrate them.”

“The Recovery Fund gives room for tax reform” “The recovery plan – he explained – gives us the conditions, including a fiscal space, to bring a reform that we hope will also be ambitious and give simplicity to the tax system and a reduction of the tax burden, especially for medium and low income”. “The recovery plan will focus on investments that have a strong impact on GDP, on economic growth it will be seen in short-term estimates. Then this mass of additional investments will also give us the space to gradually introduce a tax reform that will be structurally financed with the fight against tax evasion and with the reform of the system of environmental tax deductions ”.

“The vaccine will lead to a gradual return to normal in 2021” “We are aware of the risks related to the resumption of infections, seasonal and climatic factors, a series of variables also related to external demand” but “we believe that in a longer horizon the situation will improve and that progress on the vaccines and therapies will bring “a gradual return to normalcy in 2021 and, if there are no more shocks, the economy will recover.”