Debt crisis: Italy's statisticians threaten 'stats black-out'

Italy's official statisticians are threatening to down calculators and stop reporting on its stricken economy – as they themselves fall victim to the recession they are paid to track.

Istat, Italy's statistic office, has warned it will join the austerity protesters and not put out any statistics if it becomes a victim of austerity measures. Photo: AP

Istat, the Italian statistics agency, says its resources are strained to breaking point amid the country's tough austerity drive to repair its public finances.

From January 2013, the agency - the equivalent of the UK's own Office for National Statistics - warned it will stop putting out any official data, if the government goes ahead with planned budget cuts.

"Spending cuts are putting Istat at risk. From January onwards we will not issue any statistics," Enrico Giovannini, head of the agency, told newspaper La Repubblica.

"The demands are increasing, we are producing more, but our human and budgetary resources are falling."

He said Itsat now issues 300 major releases a year, up 25pc from two years ago, as Italians increasingly look for information about their country's economic difficulties. If the agency stopped producing economic data, the main source of information about the Italian economy would be extinguished.

Some of its data releases have already been disrupted or delayed in recent weeks by employee protests over the terms of their work.

In addition, Mr Giovannini warned that if Istat stopped putting out statistics the government faced "heavy fines" from Brussels.

"Around 70pc of our production of statistics is based on commitments with the European Union," he said.

"We will not issue data on inflation, deficit, household income, job data. That will trigger very high EU fines for our country for every day of delay.

"I do not think the government and the parliament will want to get to that point."

Istat's budget has already been slashed by €29m (£23m) over three years as part of Italy's cost-saving efforts. It is set to be cut by a further €3m a year under government proposals made last week, when Prime Minister Mario Monti's technocrat government adopted a further round of austerity measures.

The reductions in spending are mainly to be achieved through a planned 10pc cut in Italy's public administration staff.

While unpopular with voters, markets welcome the austerity measures. The Italian Treasury sold off €11.6bn of one-year government bonds on a yield, or implied interest rate, of just under 2.7pc yesterday. The rate was down from nearer 4pc at a similar auction a month ago, indicating improved investor confidence.