Italy Revises 2013 Deficit

 Italy on Monday revised up its gross domestic product for 2013 after a series of methodological changes and as a result the budget deficit and public debt-to-GDP ratios were lowered, national statistics institute ISTAT reported. Due to the upward revisions to GDP, the 2013 deficit-to-GDP ratio was cut to 2.8% from 3.0%, more comfortably inside the European Union’s 3% ceiling. The deficit in 2012 was left unchanged at 3.0%, Business Recorder reported. The GDP revisions, which affected data from 2009, significantly lowered Italy’s public debt-to-GDP ratio, one of the highest in the European Union.