The 2008 budget gives companies a break but leaves spending too high.
Romano Prodi once mused, it can be hard “to distinguish the real issue—about which nobody ever talks—from the fictitious one which is fought over ferociously.” Rarely has that been truer than of the debate over the draft 2008 budget presented by Mr Prodi’s centre-left [...]

Italy’s economic growth in 2007 will be slightly lower than expected, Italian Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa said Tuesday.
The government’s previous forecast for GDP growth this year was 2 percent and 1.9 percent in 2008.
During his speech to parliament, Padoa-Schioppa said that the economic growth “might not reach 2 percent” in 2007 and that next year [...]