Italy’s Prime Minister defended the country’s “beautiful” 2019 budget on Thursday, brushing off criticism of it from Brussels as European authorities stepped up pressure for changes to a draft that breaches the bloc’s fiscal rules. Giuseppe Conte also denied a rift over the fiscal plan within his governing coalition, after reports of a spat over tax revenues. The draft, signed off by Italy’s cabinet on Monday, will hike the deficit at a time when under EU regulations it should be falling, as well as boosting welfare spending and cutting the retirement age. In the first formal step of a procedure that could lead to ... (full story)