BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday that the European Union's fiscal rules should be revised and focus on growth rather than on financial stability.
"We have a stability and growth pact that focuses on stability and not on growth. We want to invert this order," Conte told reporters, saying he planned to respect existing EU fiscal rules but would work to change them.
Under current rules, EU states with large public debts should gradually reduce them, but Rome's debt increased last year and is forecast to expand further until 2020.
Conte said the Italian government will complete the assessment of its finances in a meeting on Wednesday after which he expects new estimates to point to a 2019 deficit of around 2.1% of output, below the EU commission's expectations.
It is however unclear whether this would be enough for the EU Commission to stop a disciplinary procedure against Italy, which Brussels has said would be warranted on the basis of 2018 data and EU forecasts.