In 2020, the Italian National Institute of Statistics has recorded an unprecedented decline in Italy's GDP and an increase in national debt amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the government's emergency measures to combat the pandemic, the decrease in GDP amounted to 8.9% over the year.
Simultaneously, the size of Italy's public debt at the end of last year amounted to 2.569 trillion euros, that is, 155.6% of GDP.
For comparison, in 2019, the national debt was 134.6% of GDP. The size of the country's sovereign debt in August 2020 reached an all-time high - almost 2.579 trillion euros.