By Giuseppe Fonte and Angelo Amante
ROME (Reuters) -The Italian government plans talks with restaurant owners in order to control prices and help large families to eat out, a government document seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.
Industry Minister Adolfo Urso has summoned several associations from the catering and food sector to a meeting in Rome next Tuesday morning, the document showed.
The initiative stems from a desire to boost the Italian catering sector and consumption by families, “especially large families who, in a period of persistent inflationary pressures, have had to review their habits,” it said.
Rome’s goal is to make it possible to “enjoy restaurants, places that are the emblem of good Italian living,” the government added.
As in other European countries, inflation in Italy is gradually reversing from peaks after the European Central Bank embarked on its longest and steepest ever series of interest rate hikes.
However, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government is keen to enforce measures aimed at supporting less affluent people struggling with rising prices when companies are often blamed for passing on more than the direct increase in production costs to consumers.
A government official said the ministry wanted to promote menus with local products and specific menus for children.
The latest move follows an initiative launched last month to try to control prices in supermarket chains and small shopkeepers for essential staples.
France announced similar measures in August, experiencing difficulties in securing the support of big suppliers, while Germany is set to end pandemic era tax breaks for restaurants, sparking industry warnings of mass closures.
Italian EU-harmonised consumer price index (HICP) rose 1.9% year-on-year following a 5.6% rate in September to post its lowest reading since July 2021, data showed this week.
Read the full article here