Italian public debt reaches record high

Rome, Aug 17 Italy's public debt set a record high of 2.69 trillion euros ($3 trillion) in June this year, an increase of 9.2 billion euros ($10 billion) compared to the previous month, the central bank said.

The Bank of Italy attributed the increase to new government debt, which totaled 9.3 billion euros, reports Xinhua news agency.

However, local government debt actually dropped slightly over the last month, while the debtload of public pension systems remained unchanged.

The Bank of Italy, the country's largest creditor, saw its own share of the country's public debt increased to 23.0 per cent, compared to 22.7 per cent in the previous month.

The government tax revenue totalled 32.6 billion euros in June, a 20 per cent increase compared to the same month in 2020.

Italy's public debt, when taken as a percentage of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), was already among the highest in the world before the pandemic.

It has since mushroomed, sparked by stimulus and health programs, and lower tax revenue.

According to estimates from the data firm Statista, Italy's public debt will peak at 155.7 per cent of the country's GDP this year, before dropping to 152.9 per cent in 2022, as tax revenue increases and the economy recovers from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2019, the last full year before the start of the pandemic, public debt in Italy accounted for 134.6 per cent of the country's GDP.

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