Italy's reforms make it best fit to tackle pension, healthcare costs: IMF

Italy's efforts to reduce fiscal deficits and pension reforms make it best placed among developed nations in facing challenges posed by rising pension and healthcare costs, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Tuesday.

"We fully support the action of the government in its action to reduce deficits ... and to stop the increase in public debt," Carlo Cottarelli, director of the IMF's fiscal affairs department told a news briefing, praising in particular Rome's pension system reforms.

"As a result of these reforms, Italy is in the best situation across all advanced economies in terms of facing the pressure from increasing spending on healthcare and pensions in the next 20 years."

(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov and Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)