Budget bill, clash over banks and cuts as inflation rises to 5.4%

Istat has confirmed that October inflation rose to 5.4 percent, while Gross Domestic Product remained stagnant in the third quarter of the year. The data comes as the government brings to the Chamber of Deputies the text of the Budget Law, composed of 157 articles and certified by the General Accounting Office of the State according to Radiocor of Sole 24 Ore.

On the revenue front, the clash between the executive and the banking system remains open: the budget provides for a contribution of 5.8 billion euros from banks, against an Irpef cut that would affect 3.2 million people. Among the measures reported by Radiocor is the reduction of the second Irpef bracket to 33 percent for incomes up to 55,000 euros.

President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella addressed the general economic climate, pointing to the risk for Italian families caught between rising prices and stagnant wages and indicating the need to protect savings in the face of the emergence of new financial instruments. “Italians under attack from prices and stagnant wages” is the summary that the Quirinale gave of the economic condition of many families.

Lega leader Matteo Salvini also spoke on the contribution requested from banks, saying that if Parliament deems a greater contribution from credit institutions necessary, it is fully entitled to decide so: a position that leaves the door open to a tightening of the measure during the parliamentary process.

Meanwhile, the text of the budget bill has sparked a front of criticism over specific measures. According to Repubblica, the Budget Law provides for a cut of 4,925 teaching positions and 2,049 administrative, technical and support staff positions, for a total of approximately 7,000 positions, with an estimated annual saving of 252 million euros starting from 2028. On the healthcare front, the Cgil has quantified at 2.4 billion euros the overall resources allocated to the sector by the budget bill, a figure that the union deems insufficient relative to the system’s needs.

The text must now undergo the parliamentary process at the Chamber of Deputies, where the open issues — from the size of the banking contribution to measures on schools and healthcare — remain a matter of negotiation among the majority, the opposition and social partners. The 33 percent Irpef bracket for incomes up to 55,000 euros remains, for now, the most directly verifiable fiscal measure in the text that has reached Montecitorio.