Making accounting documents and information more readable permits better measurement of the costs of public programmes and assessment of how well the distribution of resources corresponds to the purposes of public action. In the future, this could enhance the efficiency of public spending, overcoming the great budget rigidity produced by use of past spending as the main yardstick.
Choices in the field of pensions are crucial to the lasting consolidation of the public finances in a context in which, by Istat’s estimates, the ratio of the population over 60 to the population of working age will rise from 42 per cent in 2005 to 53 per cent in 2020 and 83 per cent in 2040.