Letta sees recovery in reach as budget wrangles run on

(By Sandra Cordon) (ANSA) – Rome, November 13 – Premier Enrico Letta said Wednesday that he is confident Italy’s economy is pulling out of recession even as his government continued to shepherd its 2014 budget bill through Senate approvals.

Letta, whose fiscal plan has been criticized as lacking in bold measures to stimulate economic growth, said that he believes the recovery is “within reach” in 2014 after the longest recession in more than 20 years.

“There are signals that we can reverse the trend,” said Letta, as the Senate budget committee continued to review more than 3,000 proposed amendments to the budget bill.

More than 400 of those have already been rejected and the budget bill is expected to reach the Lower House for review next week.

“Even though (recovery) cannot be seen in the figures yet, I’m confident we can get going again,” added Letta, whose government has been constrained in its fiscal measures by the necessity of holding Italy’s deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) level at or below 3% as mandated by the European Union.

Italy has been in recession since the third quarter of 2011, creating a crisis that has driven up unemployment rates, lowered living standards and pushed more and more families towards poverty.

Although the government has said it was hopeful the recession would end in the second half of this year, the evidence is not yet apparent.

National statistics agency Istat recently reported that Italy again posted negative growth in the third quarter. Still, European Commission President Jos