ROME, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Italy's public debt rose above 2.6 trillion euros (3.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in January, an all-time high, the Bank of Italy reported on Monday.
The country's public debt has climbed steadily over the last year, as tax revenue has slowed and expenditures skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the data released Monday, the debt increased by 33.9 billion euros between December and January, bringing the overall total to 2.6031 trillion euros, higher than it has ever been.
On the positive side, the Bank of Italy report said tax revenue in January totaled 36.7 billion euros, an increase of 2.0 percent compared to the same month a year earlier. But overall tax revenue for 2020 was still down by 6.6 percent -- 32.5 billion euros -- compared to full-year tax revenue from 2019, the last full year before the pandemic hit.
Italy remains the most indebted country in the European Union in absolute terms, according to data from the International Monetary Fund, though with debt totaling 158.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product, it is second to Greece by that measure.
Italy's economy is the third-largest in the 27-nation European Union, behind only Germany and France. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars) Enditem
