Ex-IMF official Cottarelli: Italy's 2019 growth target is `difficult' to reach

In an interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera on Monday, an Italian economist and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) official Carlo Cottarelli said that Italy's 2019 growth target is `difficult' to reach given current quarterly expansion level.

Cottarelli noted:*With a 2.4% annual budget deficit target for next 3 years, govt “has, in fact, announced that it will not respect the deficit rule nor the debt rule” set by the European Union (EU).