Italy's public debt rises to record high

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IANS | 17 Jul, 2012
Italy's public debt hit a record high in May despite Rome's recent efforts to ease the overstretched finances, showed a central bank report.

The national debt stood at USD 2,405 billion in May, up from USD 2,385 billion a month earlier, according to the report released Monday.

Also Monday, the International Monetary Fund predicted a negative growth of 1.9 percent for the recession-hit Italian economy in 2012, reported Xinhua.

Meanwhile, a report by Promotor, an automotive research center, showed gasoline and diesel-fuel consumption fell by a combined average of 9.7 percent in the first half of the year, the biggest drop since 1955, when the center started to collect data.

Promotor blamed the sluggish economy for the shrinking consumption, but noted that higher prices pushed total spending on gasoline and diesel up by 8.8 percent over the period.

Amid the gloomy picture, one positive figure was trade surplus in May, which was up USD 847 million on European countries and USD 387 million on non-European ones, according to the national statistics institute of Istat.

The surplus of USD 3.1 billion recorded during the first five months also marked a big improvement from the USD 22.3 billion deficit registered in the same period last year, the agency said.