Italy budget deficit narrows in June from year earlier

ROME: Italy posted a state sector budget deficit of around 3.2 billion euros in June, narrowing from a deficit of 8.4 billion in the same month last year, the Treasury said on Monday.

The June 2017 deficit was larger than usual due to a state bail-out of two banks in the northern Veneto region, the Treasury said in a statement. Net of this one-off outlay the deficit this June would have been just 400 million euros less than in June 2017, it added.

In the first six months of this year, the cumulative budget deficit amounted to 41.2 billion euros, some 9.2 billion euros less than in the same period of 2017, the Treasury said.

The state sector borrowing requirement (SSBR), a measure of the gap between central government spending and income, differs from the broader "general government" accounts, which the European Union Stability and Growth Pact refers to when assessing countries' deficit performances.

Italy aims to cut its general government deficit this year to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product from 2.3 percent last year, well inside the European Union's 3 percent ceiling.