Italy revises down 2013 deficit and debt-to-GDP ratios

Italy on Monday revised up its gross domestic product for 2013 after a series of methodological changes and as a result the budget deficit and public debt-to-GDP ratios were lowered, national statistics institute ISTAT reported. Due to the upward revisions to GDP, the 2013 deficit-to-GDP ratio was cut to 2.8 per cent from 3.0 per cent, more comfortably inside the European Union's 3 per cent ceiling. The deficit in 2012 was left unchanged at 3.0 per cent. The GDP revisions, which affected data from 2009, significantly lowered Italy's public debt-to-GDP ratio, one of the highest in the European Union. The 2013 ratio was cut to 127.9 per cent from an originally reported 132.6 per cent, while the 2012 ratio was lowered to 122.2 per cent from 127.0 per cent. The annual GDP fall of 1.9 per cent in 2013 was unrevised, while 2012 was marginally revised up to show a contraction of 2.3 per cent instead of 2.4 per cent. The methodological changes, which are being conducted across the EU, are also expected to raise this year's GDP and so give Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government more hope of keeping the deficit inside 3 per cent despite an economic recession, according to Reuters.