Italy plunges into record poverty



06/17/2021 3:39 AM


The number of Italians living in absolute poverty (below a monthly income of between 569.56 euros and 839.78 euros per person, depending on the region) was last year the highest since 2005, when such statistics began to be kept.



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In 2020, more than 5.6 million people and more than two million families in Italy were living in absolute poverty. More than 2.6 million families were in relative poverty (less than €1001.86 of expenditure per family of two). There were 767 thousand families with underage children in a state of absolute poverty.

Italy's public debt in 2021 will be the highest in a century, amounting to nearly 160 percent of GDP, writes Bloomberg. It will even exceed the figure for the first year after World War II, when the ratio of public debt to GDP was 159.5 percent.

The budget deficit is forecast to widen to 11.8 percent this year as Europe's third-largest economy seeks billions of euros in additional loans to help protect its citizens and businesses from the effects of the pandemic.

source: bloomberg.com


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