Italy's Economy Minister Giorgetti spoke on Wednesday, dismissing some media report that Italy was at risk of a sovereign debt downgrade:

  • "Is Italy at risk of a sovereign rating downgrade? 'These are headlines, you as journalists rightly believe them, I have a legitimate doubt",

He went on to cite:

  • a strong economy, the second-largest manufacturing economy in Europe

And acknowledging:

  • "But it has a large public debt and must be careful not to make blunders."

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He also said, and its hard to link this in with those above comments but I think it was at different venue:

  • I don't know how realistic the 2% inflation target set by the European Central Bank is
Italy euro is likely to hike it budget deficit target again