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Italy's parliament gives final approval to 2015 budget
Last Updated: 2014-12-23 07:26 | Xinhua
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Italian Lower House gave final approval to the 2015 budget on Monday.

The budget was passed with 307 votes in favor and 116 votes against, after a long day of political debates in the assembly.

Ten deputies of the anti-establishment 5 Stars Movement (M5S) were expelled by the president of the Lower House, Laura Boldrini, for staging protests against the measures provided by the budgetary plan and trying to occupy the government's seats during the debate.

The budget had already received the Senate's approval on Dec. 19th, after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's cabinet had called a confidence vote to cut the debate and ensure the swift approval of the bill.

On the whole, the cabinet won four confidence votes on the budget law.

Italian governments are obliged to step down if they lose a confidence vote in parliament, and, by law, both Houses must approve the budget before the end of the year.

The plan provides some 18 billion euros (22 billion U.S. dollars) in tax cuts, mainly to businesses and to low-income households, plus a series of measures to boost the recession-hit Italian economy.

The budget originally comprised spending cuts worth some 15 billion euros, which would have reduced Italy's structural fiscal deficit by 0.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The cabinet later amended the draft budget to include further 4.5 billion euros in cuts to reduce the deficit by 0.3 percent of GDP, after objections were voiced by the European Union (EU) Commission in November.

The budget would now keep Italy's deficit at 2.9 percent of GDP, slightly below the 3 percent ceiling required by the EU Stability and Growth Act.

Despite the adjustment, the Commission expressed fears Italy might still not meet EU fiscal deficit targets in 2015 without further measures, along with France and Belgium.

The European executive body will review the budgets of all three countries again in March, for a final decision on whether they would break EU fiscal rules.

Italian government said the 2015 budget would lift the country's economy, which entered its third recession in six years last August.

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