The Italian public debt rose to a record high point of 1,757 billion euros in August, the central bank revealed on Tuesday against a background of recession arising from the global crisis. Italy has the highest debt relative to gross domestic product of any country in Europe, and the government expects the ratio to reach 115.1 percent this year and 117.3 percent in 2010.
The central bank put the debt in August precisely at 1,757.5 billion euros (2,590 billion dollars), 4.78 billion euros higher than the figure of 1,752.72 billion euros in May. This shows that debt has been rising at a rate of about 1.6 billion euros per month in the last quarter, or about 400 million euros per week.
In August of last year, the public debt amounted to 1,666.6 billion euros. The debt is the accumulation of past annual spending in excess of revenues, otherwise known as the annual deficit. Under EU rules, a country is supposed to have an annual deficit no greater than 3.0 percent of annual output and to have moved towards surplus in times of growth.
The government expects the budget to show a public deficit this year of 5.3 percent of output, and of 5.0 percent next year. The public deficit, as defined by the Maastricht treaty which created the eurozone covers budgets by central government, public welfare systems and local authorities.
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