European Central Bank President Giorgio Draghi said on Saturday Italian officials must stop questioning the euro and "calm down" in the budget debate because it has hurt businesses and families.
A senior Italian coalition official retorted that Mr Draghi should calm down rather than direct his attention to the occasional comments of government officials on the euro, which were personal and had no impact on government policy.
The Italian government is fighting with European officials as it plans to triple its deficit next year and end its previous commitment to narrow the budget gap. Italy is one of the most heavily indebted countries in the euro area.
"If people start to question the euro... the expansion budgets of highly indebted countries will make the problem much more complicated," Draghi said at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund.
"These words... caused real harm, and there's a lot of evidence that spread widening is related to these words," Draghi said. "As a result, the interest rates on loans for families and businesses have increased."
"The first thing we need is to calm down these debates; the second thing we have to wait for is the truth," Draghi said. He stressed the need to review the actual spending plans, which may differ from what the Government had conveyed.
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