The rise of Italian public debt: a concerning overview
Italian public debt climbed to €2.962.3 billion in 2024, with an average monthly growth of €10.4 billion. This marks a sharp increase compared to 2023, when the debt stood at €2.868.4 billion, with a monthly growth of €8.8 billion.
This trend began during the Covid-19 pandemic, when debt levels surged to fund extraordinary measures. In 2020, monthly growth reached a record high of €13.5 billion.
Recent years: from the pandemic to restrictive policies
According to the Unimpresa Research Center report, debt growth, although slowing after 2020, has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, debt rose to €2.685.2 billion, with a monthly increase of €9 billion, compared to €2.414.3 billion in 2019, when the monthly growth was just €2.5 billion.
Key factors behind the recent acceleration include:
- Higher interest rates, driven by the ECB’s restrictive monetary policies.
- Increasing public spending.
- Challenges in achieving effective fiscal consolidation.
A historical comparison: from the early 2000s to today
In the past decades, Italian public debt grew gradually until the 2020 pandemic caused a dramatic surge. In the early 2000s, debt grew at a modest average monthly rate of €1.9 billion. However, from 2005 to 2009, growth accelerated significantly, reaching €1.839.5 billion, foreshadowing the global financial crisis.
An uncertain future: the need for structural reforms
With debt exceeding €2.962 billion in 2024, Unimpresa Vice President Giuseppe Spadafora stresses the urgency of structural reforms:
“If this trend is not reversed, the burden on the state budget will become unsustainable.”
This trajectory highlights the need for prudent public finance management to prevent debt growth from reaching unsustainable levels.
