«The Government, ECB, IMF and OECD would do well to learn from Mario Draghi, who not only was the only president of the ECB to have got the timing of monetary policies right, but who when he was Prime Minister intervened immediately, after the invasion of Ukraine, to reduce excise duties on fuel and eliminate the system costs of electricity and gas bills, and not as these international bodies are now asking in a targeted way for those who need it most, but for everyone.
Only by doing so, in fact, can inflation be curbed, certainly not by giving some alms to those who have the social card or by increasing the extraordinary bonus on electricity bills for a small minority of Italians, a bonus that Meloni has reduced just this year.”
Thus Massimiliano Dona, president of the National Consumers Union.
Criticism of the OECD on energy price increases
«It is incredible that the OECD rightly says that «the increase in energy prices will cause an increase in inflation, canceling out the recent progression in real wages», and then does not draw the necessary conclusions that to avoid the fall in consumption and GDP it is necessary to intervene against the increases in the energy sector, both for families and for businesses» continues Dona.
The attack against the ECB and the appeal to the Government
«Even worse is the ECB, which in recent days has argued that budget measures against the energy shock must remain temporary and targeted to avoid fueling inflation, when it is precisely the energy shock that fuels inflation.
Of course the measures must be limited in time but, beyond the fact that the Government should have introduced them already in March instead of pretending to wait for the unnecessary approval from Europe, they will then have to remain in force until the price of gas and oil returns to pre-crisis values and navigation of the Strait of Hormuz resumes regularly” adds Dona.
«In short, the Government must not use these international bodies as a shield so as not to renew the discount on excise duties and must finally also intervene against the high bills, otherwise what it gains in terms of debt it will lose in terms of GDP and the Debt/GDP ratio will worsen» concludes Dona.