The European Commission has threatened to move against Rome because it failed to cut its large public debt in 2018 as promised, and has called on the Italian government to bolster state accounts.

The government has ruled out any belt-tightening, but has said it can cut this year's deficit forecast thanks partly to the fact that two flagship budget measures this year - an early retirement option and a universal income for the poor - proved less popular, and therefore less costly, than expected.

The coalition had originally predicted that the deficit would come in at 2.04pc of GDP in 2019 but revised up the target to 2.4pc in April after the economy showed signs of slowing.