Hoekstra Says Italy Is Still Kicking Can Down the Road on Budget

(Bloomberg) -- Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said Italy still hasn’t taken adequate measures to address its budget problems and may be fending off sanctions from the European Union again in six months.

"There’s a high degree of kicking the can down the road," Hoekstra told reporters in The Hague Friday. "My concern is -- regardless of how you view the current plan -- do we have the next episode of this conversation in six months time? There’s a realistic chance of that."

Hoekstra welcomed Italy’s efforts to narrow this year’s deficit and acknowledged that progress has been made but said much more needs to be done to make growth sustainable.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ruben Munsterman in Amsterdam at rmunsterman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.