EU's Juncker Told Italy's Conte to Cut Deficit, Repubblica Says

(Bloomberg) -- Spending cuts of 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) to 7 billion euros may be sufficient to trim Italy’s planned 2019 deficit of 2.4 percent, newspaper La Repubblica reported European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying.

Juncker made the comments during a Saturday evening meeting with Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Brussels, as they discussed ways to avoid sanctions, the newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Juncker also said Conte’s two deputies, Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, must stop their verbal attacks on the European Union.

Salvini and Di Maio have insisted that the 2.4 deficit for next year is non-negotiable.

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