MILAN (Reuters) - Italy will continue with a plan to privatise state-owned companies, but Prime Minister Matteo Renzi does not see the sale of stakes in energy companies Eni (MI:ENI) and Enel (MI:ENEI) as a priority, he told financial daily Il Sole 24Ore.
The country, whose public debt is the second largest in the euro zone as a percentage of gross domestic product, announced last year an ambitious programme to shed state-owned assets.
The privatisation drive was intended to raise the equivalent of 0.7 percent of Italy's 1.6 trillion euro (1.27 trillion pound) GDP, or about 11 billion euros, but market uncertainty has forced the Treasury to delay parts of the programme, including the planned sale of a stake in post office operator Poste Italiane.
"I don't see as a priority to reduce state-owned stakes in two companies (Eni and Enel) that have a great potential, whose share price could rise further," Renzi was quoted as saying by the newspaper on Wednesday.
The government, which is struggling to maintain financial discipline as the economy has fallen back into recession, will cut public spending by 20 billion euros next year, Renzi said.
The government does not plan to take additional budget measures this year and it is not studying extraordinary measures to cut it 2-trillion-euro public debt.
(Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Susan Fenton)