(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 28 - The spread between 10 year Italian BTP bond yields and the German equivalent rose to 198.5 basis points on Thursday, the day after the government of Premier Giorgia Meloni approved the NADEF update to the DEF economic and financial blueprint.
    The yield on the BTP rose to 4.84%. On Wednesday evening the cabinet greenlighted the revised macroeconomic framework for the 2024 budget law, which is due to come before parliament in the coming weeks.
    The approved NADEF sets the 2024 budget deficit at 4.3% of GDP, 2024 GDP growth at 1,2% and public debt 140.1% of GDP.
    Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said after the cabinet meeting that Italy has "done the right things" within the framework of European fiscal rules.
    "We are not respecting the 3%," said Giorgetti, referring to the goal of keeping deficit below 3% of GDP.
    "However, the overall situation does not lead us to believe it is opportune to enact procyclical policies that fuel recession, and so the bar has been raised to a reasonable level," he added.
    "I believe that there are people on the (European) Commission who have been in and are in politics, and therefore unlike central bankers who do their job and decide independently from other types of consideration will understand the situation, as do all my European finance minister colleagues who are managing a situation of economic slowdown and in some cases recession," said Giorgetti. (ANSA).