The Finance Ministry said the euro-region's third-biggest economy will grow 0.7 percent in 2011 instead of the 1.1 percent forecast in April and 0.6 percent in 2012 rather than 1.3 percent. That compares with the growth forecasts by the IMF of 0.6 percent this year and 0.3 percent next.
The ministry also forecast a budget deficit of 3.9 percent of GDP this year, 1.6 percent next year and 0.1 percent in 2013. The IMF projected the deficit to fall to 4 percent of GDP in 2011, 2.4 percent in 2012 and 1.1 percent in 2013.
Berlusconi has pushed through two packages of deficit cuts since mid-July totaling about 100 billion euros. Measures included raising the value-added tax by one percentage point to 21 percent and a levy on incomes of more than 300,000 euros to balance the budget by 2013. The second, announced on Aug. 5, was a condition of ECB support.
The negative outlook on Italy announced this week by S&P means there's a one-in-three chance that the company will lower the nation's rating again within the next 12 to 18 months, Moritz Kraemer, S&P's managing director of European sovereign ratings, said Sept. 20.
Italy will have to find additional savings between 9 billion and 10 billion euros "to increase the chances of reaching a budget that is close to balanced by 2013," Fabio Fois, European economist at Barclays Capital in London, wrote in a note before the new forecasts were unveiled. "We think that further fiscal measures are likely to be announced over the next couple of weeks."