{"id":451096,"date":"2026-04-22T12:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/22\/italia-nel-2025-debito-pubblico-piu-alto-delle-attese-male-anche-sul-deficit\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:28:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:28:43","slug":"italys-2025-public-debt-exceeds-expectations-deficit-deteriorates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/22\/italys-2025-public-debt-exceeds-expectations-deficit-deteriorates\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s 2025 public debt exceeds expectations; deficit deteriorates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels &#8211; <strong>Italy\u2019s public debt rose more than expected<\/strong>. Figures released today (22 April) by <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/web\/products-euro-indicators\/w\/2-22042026-ap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eurostat<\/a>, the European Union\u2019s statistical office, indicate that<strong>\u00a0at the end of 2025 the debt-to-GDP ratio stood\u00a0at 137.1 percent, a full 0.7 percentage points higher<\/strong> than <a href=\"https:\/\/economy-finance.ec.europa.eu\/publications\/european-economic-forecast-autumn-2025_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the European Commission&#8217;s <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/economy-finance.ec.europa.eu\/publications\/european-economic-forecast-autumn-2025_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Autumn 2025<\/a> European Economic Forecast announced in November (136.4 percent). The updated estimates for the public finances of the European Union and the eurozone\u00a0are not favorable to the Meloni government, which is now required to restore public accounts from a trajectory that runs counter to the common budget rules.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-chart\" data-src=\"visualisation\/28651087\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/28651087\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"visualization\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>The figures released by the European statistics office do little to help the ruling parties in their call for the suspension of the Stability Pact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/21\/tajani-italy-is-on-its-own-when-it-comes-to-security-in-the-red-sea-we-must-increase-the-military-presence-of-aspides\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">renewed as recently as yesterday (21 April), by the Deputy Prime Minister <\/a>and Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani. With Italy\u2019s finances in this state, further relaxing spending limits would prove difficult at the EU level. Above all, the Eurostat data puts the spotlight on Italy and<strong> the possibility that, as early as the end of 2026, public debt could exceed that of Greece<\/strong>, which is on a downward trend (from 177.8 percent of GDP in 2022 to 146.1 percent by the end of 2025).<\/p>\n<p>It is not within Eurostat\u2019s mandate or role to make forecasts; those will be produced by the European Commission in mid\u2011May. That is when it will become clear what is expected from Italy.\u00a0<strong>Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has already predicted that Italy will be overtaken by the end of 2026<\/strong>:\u00a0according to IMF estimates, Italy&#8217;s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/datamapper\/profile\/ITA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> debt-to-GDP ratio is set to reach 138.4 percent<\/a>, compared to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/datamapper\/profile\/GRC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">136.9 percent for Greece<\/a>. Not exactly a flattering picture for Italy and the Meloni government, which finds itself lagging behind the euro\u2011area country that became both the symbol of the economic crisis and of its solution.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-scaled.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-451165 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-1024x882.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-1024x882.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-300x258.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-768x661.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-1536x1323.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-2048x1764.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-750x646.jpeg 750w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EUNEWS_DebitoPubblico_ENG.jpg-1140x982.jpeg 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It will therefore be up to the spring economic forecasts to determine whether the EU will also officially recognize that Italy\u2019s debt is rising to ever-higher, unprecedented levels. Certainly, the figures do not look promising. <strong>As regards the deficit too, Eurostat\u2019s figures confirm Italy\u2019s inability to return to within the 3 percent GDP threshold<\/strong>, as stipulated by the Treaties and the Stability Pact as a benchmark for public finances. Here too, the European Commission had forecast 3 percent by the end of 2025, but Eurostat puts the figure at 3.1 percent. A setback for Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eurostat data on public finances give Italy a failing grade: 137.1 percent, 0.7 percentage points higher than the Commission\u2019s forecasts. By 2026, Italy\u2019s debt risks exceeding that of Greece. Brussels\u2019 forecasts are due in mid-May<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":274383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[25741,25742,31425,26105,25740],"class_list":["post-451096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-debt-en","tag-deficit-en-2","tag-eurostat-en-2","tag-dati-eurostat-en","tag-accounts-public-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451096"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451170,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451096\/revisions\/451170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}