What has the government decided on reopening, support and investment
Here are the details on the government's measures on reopening, support and investment
GOVERNMENT PRESS RELEASE :
President Draghi outlined the three pillars of the country's relaunch strategy: a clear road map for reopening, measures to support the economy and businesses, relaunching growth thanks to investments.
This strategy is based on a better health situation, with the slowing of the contagion curve and the acceleration of the vaccination campaign. “We can look to the future with prudent optimism and confidence”, explained Draghi.
The reopenings
Starting from April 26, the yellow areas return, but with a change from the past: priority is given to outdoor activities, starting with restaurants with outdoor tables for lunch and dinner. A decision based on a "reasoned risk", based on the opinion of scientists, who tell us that the risk of contagion in the open air is low. The restaurants will also be able to reopen indoors only for lunch from 1st June.
With the restoration of the yellow areas, the museums will automatically reopen, while theaters, cinemas and shows in the yellow area will be able to reopen with capacity limitation measures established by the Technical Scientific Committee.
Starting from May 15th, the outdoor swimming pools will be able to restart the activity only and from June 1st the gyms. Following fairs and congresses, spas and theme parks.
In the yellow and orange areas, schools of all levels and levels reopen in attendance; in the red areas, nursery schools and schools up to sixth grade will be open in the presence, and for high schools there are modalities that divide the lessons partly in presence and partly at a distance.
These measures will be contained in a forthcoming provision, to be approved by the Council of Ministers, which will also define in detail the new rules for travel on the national territory. As explained by President Draghi, it will again be possible to move freely between Regions in the yellow zone. To go to Regions of different colors, one of the following conditions is expected to exist: vaccination, execution of a Covid-negative test in a recent period of time, recovery from Covid.
Support for the economy
With the new budget gap of 40 billion and the Economics and Finance Document approved by the Council of Ministers, the Government is launching a bet on growth: this year the public deficit will be just under 12% in relation to GDP and will gradually reduce until it returns below 3% not before 2025. If growth is the expected one, explained Draghi, “we think that no corrective action will be needed in the years to come. The process translates into an exit from debt as a result of growth ”.
Support interventions follow two types of logic: support for people and families who have suffered a decline in income and not through their fault, and help in favor of businesses to prevent them from closing due to lack of liquidity. Draghi underlined that in recent months we have already moved with the utmost urgency to help families and businesses, recalling that the Revenue Agency – from March 30 to today – has already paid 3 billion euros in payments relating to the decree "Sostegni ”And will pay more in April.
With the next support intervention, aid to companies and VAT numbers affected by the crisis will be strengthened. There will be measures to cover fixed costs, such as rents and utility bills, as well as interventions to favor credit and liquidity and tax deferrals and exemptions. There will also be more resources for young people and local authorities.
Investments for future growth
After the exit from the health emergency Italy will finally have to return to growth. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) will be the keystone for the relaunch: Italy has 191.5 billion euros available, of which 69 non-repayable, 122 loans, plus 30 billion from the accompanying fund to PNRR. With this fund, works that have a longer time horizon than the 6-year duration of the Recovery Fund, but which will have to run at the same speed, will be financed.
The Plan is a historic opportunity for the relaunch of the economy and requires an ambitious program of reforms so that resources are grounded and there are no obstacles to the opening of construction sites. The government is already working on this, explained Draghi: commissioners have been appointed for 57 public works, which had already been identified but were waiting to be implemented. A clear and realistic time schedule has been defined for each work, and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility will carry out a quarterly monitoring on the implementation of the various phases, so as to promptly remove any obstacles.
President Draghi also addressed the issue of the high Italian public debt, recalling the importance of the "good debt", which is capable of generating growth. With the eyes of yesterday, the markets looked at interest rates on public debt, which today are very low; with today's eyes, markets look to growth, which must be sustainable.
Draghi also explained that, after the pandemic crisis, it is very unlikely that Europe will return to apply the same budget rules as it was before. All European countries must return to a path of sustained growth and for this reason we will have to continue to allocate public resources to the economy, focusing mainly on investments once the health emergency is over.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/che-cosa-ha-deciso-il-governo-su-riaperture-sostegni-e-investimenti/ on Sat, 17 Apr 2021 06:26:52 +0000.