Italian Economy In One Graph: Growth, Deficit and Debt

Here you see the Italian economy pictured. With the economic growth, budget deficits and the national debt.

The problem is a combination of an increase in the national debt in the early nineties and a sluggish economy since. Italy grew especially slow compared to most other western countries. Which was one of the problems why the government debt didn't go down. The budget deficit wasn't the big problem, as you can see Italy had a primary budget surplus for most years.

FT