Renzi struggling to rein in Italy's big-spending state

ROME (Reuters) - Carlo Cottarelli left a high-level job at the International Monetary Fund last year to help the Italian government cut high public spending. Nine months on, the craggy 59-year-old economist and newly minted "spending commissioner" has made little headway.

Most of the cuts he suggested in a 72-page review of Italy's public administration – an unpublished tome seen by Reuters that picks apart services ranging from disability benefits to policing - appear to have been ignored by Matteo Renzi's government.