Daily Management Review

Italy's national debt rose to a historic high € 2.373 trln


06/17/2019


The size of the public debt of Italy in April of this year set another record and reached a historic high of €2.373 trillion, the country's central bank Bankitalia, said.



Needpix
Needpix
Compared with March, Italy's sovereign debt grew by €14.8 billion. This can primarily be explained by increased costs of the central state administration, which grew by €13.9 billion.

The leading Italian consumer protection organization, Codacons, reported in this regard that currently there are more than €39 thousand of state debt for every citizen of the country, while for every Italian family there are more than €93 thousand. "All this is happening against the background of a decline in GDP, while economic indicators in various sectors - from trade to industry - register a negative trend," the Codacons report says.

On June 5, the European Commission officially informed that it considers justified the introduction of a procedure for correcting the situation with Italy’s excessively high government debt. The corresponding message was sent to Rome. Until June 20, the Italian government should send an answer on this matter to the EC.

The so-called Excessive Budget Deficit Procedure (EDP) is the process of developing a program for an EU country to return to normal dynamics and levels of budget deficit and/or public debt indicators, which should not exceed 3% of GDP and 60% of GDP, respectively. For violation of the program of normalization, sanctions in the amount of 0.2% of GDP may be imposed on the country.

source: reuters.com