Italian draft budget is due mid-October -EU budget commissioner

Italy must hand in a draft budget by mid-October despite the political turbulence there, the European Union's budget commissioner said on Friday. "All member states have to deliver their draft budget mid-October," Guenther Oettinger said at an economic event in the Austrian province of Tirol.

Italy's president asked Giuseppe Conte on Thursday to return as prime minister in a new coalition of the 5-Star Movement and opposition Democratic Party (PD), a move that could improve Italy's fractious relations with the EU. Oettinger said he hoped Italy soon had a new government able to deliver at least a first budget draft. "If they say we need five or 10 more days, no problem," he said.

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