Rome-  Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's cabinet on Thursday passed additional borrowing worth 40 billion euros (47.8 billion U.S. dollars) to finance a new package of measures to help businesses and households hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The new stimulus will push Italy’s budget deficit target to 11.8 percent of GDP this year from a previous 8.8 percent projected, and the public debt to 159.8 percent, according to the Economic and Financial Document (DEF) 2021. The package was signed off separately in a cabinet meeting early afternoon,  the spending plan outlining the country's public finance and economic strategies in the mid-term.

The measures will be detailed in a decree later this month, yet they should include unemployment benefits and income support for workers and households, plus a new tax relief for young couples taking out a mortgage to buy their first home, according to ANSA news agency.

Like all other EU countries, Italy will have to submit its recovery plan to Brussels by the end of April in order to receive its allotted portion (209 billion euros) of a 750-billion-euro fund provided by the Next Generation EU program. The DEF also showed growth projections at 4.5 percent this year, at 4.8 percent in 2022, and 2.6 percent and 1.8 percent in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

However, in a worst-case scenario in which the coronavirus vaccination campaign had a limited impact, the Italian government also included a lower growth forecast for this year and the next i.e.  2.7 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

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