Istat said Monday that Italy's tax-to-GDP ratio was 43.5% in 2015, 0.1% of a percentage point lower than in 2014, but 0.2 of a point higher than forecast. The national statistics agency said the higher-than-expected figure was due to the 2.3 billion euros healthy Italian banks put into a fund to save four small lenders, which was registered as "indirect taxation". Istat said that Italy's deficit-to-GDP ratio for 2015 was, as expected, 2.6%, down 0.4 of a percentage point on 2014.
Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Monday that Italy has started to get its "monster' debt of over two trillion euros, more than 130% of GDP, under control. "Italy is one of the countries in the eurozone and the European union to have made the biggest effort on public finances and it is continuing to do because we have this monster debt, which now we are starting to tame," Padoan told a meeting on public finance organised by the Lazio regional government. "The debt has stopped growing and it will start to come down this year".
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