ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said on Wednesday that the business lobby’s forecast of a 6% fall in gross domestic product due to the coronavirus emergency this year is realistic.
“Unfortunately the estimates are realistic… at the same time we can say that (the Italian economy) can aim at a vigorous rebound,” Gualtieri told daily Il Fatto Quotidiano in an interview.
The minister also said the use of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to combat the crisis linked to the infectious disease, under current conditions, was not an option but that Europe needed a shared fiscal policy as well as “new solutions to define an adequate, shared response”.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
