In July, Italy’s public debt fell by €1.1 billion compared to the previous month, totaling €2,946.6 billion. This decrease was primarily due to a public sector cash surplus of €1.9 billion, which offset the impact of discounts and premiums on issuance and redemption, the revaluation of inflation-indexed securities, and changes in exchange rates that collectively increased the debt by €0.8 billion. The data, released by the Bank of Italy in its report “Public Finance: Funding and Debt,” reveals these statistics for July 2024, including details on public debt, funding needs, and tax revenues recorded in the state budget.
The Treasury’s liquid assets remained largely unchanged from the previous month, at €45.4 billion. Regarding the breakdown by sub-sectors, the consolidated debt of local administrations and central administrations decreased by €0.7 billion and €0.4 billion, respectively, while the debt of pension funds remained stable. The average remaining life of the debt was 7.7 years, consistent with the previous month. As of July, the portion of debt held by the Bank of Italy was 23%, down from 23.1% the previous month. In June, the percentage of debt held by non-residents was 29.2%, up from 28.9% in May, while the share held by other residents (mainly households and non-financial businesses) increased to 14.5% from 14.4% the previous month.
Tax revenues recorded in the state budget for July amounted to €60.5 billion, reflecting an 8.4% decrease (or €5.6 billion) compared to the same month in 2023. This decline was partly due to the deferral of self-assessed tax payments by taxpayers subject to Synthetic Indices of Tax Reliability (ISA). For the first seven months of 2024, tax revenues totaled €309.3 billion, marking a 4% increase (€11.9 billion) compared to the same period last year.
