Minister :Italy not to revise growth forecast

The Italian government has no plans to revise its growth forecast "for the time being", Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said on Saturday, a day after the cabinet approved a 45.5-billion-euro austerity budget. "We are convinced that the impact of the measures concerning deregulation, jobs and rationalisation can be significant on GDP," Tremonti told a news conference. He conceded that it was difficult to say where and how the impact would be felt. "It's difficult to make forecasts. There are world phenomena which have an impact on us," he said. "Therefore there is no revision of GDP forecasts for the time being." Italy reported a second quarter growth of 0.8 percent compared to the same period last year. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's target for 2011 is a growth of 1.1 percent.