(ANSA) - Paris, December 17 - The tax burden in Italy rose 1.4% from 2011 to 2012 to 44.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP), the OECD revealed on Tuesday. The increase is nearly triple the 0.5% average increase for OECD member countries over the same period. Hungary and Greece saw tax burden increase at a faster rate than Italy, however, at 1.8% and 1.6%, respectively. Italy's tax burden was 40.6% of the GDP in 2005, down from 42% in 2000. In 2011, the last year in which comparable data was available for all member countries, Italy's tax to GDP ratio was 43%, nearly 9% higher than the OECD average. Italy's heavy tax burden ranked fifth after 47.7% in Denmark, 44.2% in Sweden, 44.1% in France, 44% in Belgium, and 43.7% in Finland.