Italy’s president chides populists over marathon budget

Rome: President Sergio Mattarella, who has sought to rein in Italy’s populist leaders, took the government to task for ramming spending plans through parliament and warned that the country’s debt mountain penalises ordinary citizens. The head of state used his year-end televised address Monday night to issue thinly-veiled reprimands to the coalition dominated by Euro-sceptic […]

Oil slump unlikely to result in spending cuts

Dubai: Despite a contraction in oil revenues in the first half of 2019, economists expect the sizeable fiscal consolidation of the last three years to put the fiscal stance on a more sustainable footing in the medium term. The UAE’s oil export income this year is set to fall from 2018 levels, due to lower […]