In blow to Meloni, Italy misses early exit from EU fiscal watch

BRUSSELS — Italy's government has failed to rein in its public spending enough to shake off EU fiscal oversight in a blow to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ahead of next year's general election. The Italian National Institute of Statistics today confirmed that the gap between the country’s public expenditure and revenues last year was 3.1%, above the EU's budget deficit cap of 3% under the bloc's rules for public spending. The deficit breach keeps it in the European Commission's "excessive deficit procedure," a red flag that Brussels slaps on governments that need to improve the health of their public finances.