Italy’s government budget deficit narrowed to EUR 37,605 million in 2018, or 2.1 percent of GDP, from EUR 41,541 million in 2017, or 2.4 percent of GDP. It was the lowest government deficit to GDP since 2007. Total receipts rose 1.6 percent to EUR 813.1 billion from EUR 800.7 billion in 2017, led by gains in indirect taxes (+2.1 percent to EUR 249.6 billion) and effective social contributions (+4.3 percent to EUR 230.8 billion). Meanwhile, total spending went up at a softer 1 percent to EUR 850.9 billion from 842.3 billion, on the back of higher social benefits (+2.2 percent to EUR 348.9 billion) and employee income (+3.1 percent to EUR 170.1 billion). Government budget deficit is expected at 2.0 percent of GDP in 2019. Government Budget in Italy averaged -3.36 percent of GDP from 1995 until 2018, reaching an all time high of -1.50 percent of GDP in 2007 and a record low of -7.30 percent of GDP in 1995.
Government Budget in Italy is expected to be -2.60 percent of GDP by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. In the long-term, the Italy Government Budget is projected to trend around -3.20 percent of GDP in 2020, according to our econometric models.