Unions, leftists call for 'urgent' action - Many Italians, especially large southern households, are struggling to make ends meet, statistics agency Istat reported on Thursday.
The report spurred trade unions and political parties to reiterate calls for a new incomes policy to help poorer families - something which Romano Prodi's government pledged last week.
Renata Polverini of the UGL union said the report ''highlights the urgent need to boost purchasing power and implement concrete measures to help working families, especially those in the south with more children.
Gianni Pagliarini of the Italian Communists' Party said ''the incomes issue is now squarely on the agenda and no one can make excuses any more''.
He called for contract wages to be boosted to catch up with real inflation.
In the report, based on findings from 2005-2006, some 15% of families reported they ran out of money well before the end of the month.
Some 9% of households said they fell behind with bills at least once in 2006 while 4.2% had trouble buying the food they needed, 10.4% couldn't afford medical care, 16.8% didn't have money for new clothes and 10.4% couldn't heat their homes properly.
Families in the south had 30% more problems than those in the north, Istat said.
The gap between rich and poor was also higher in the south than in the north, with Calabria, Sicily and Campania showing the biggest disparities.
Incomes were most evenly distributed in Val d'Aosta, Trentino and Friuli.
Overall, Italy's rich-poor gap was the worst in the European Union apart from Greece, Portugal and EU newcomers.
Some 50% of Italian families got by with less than 1,900 euros ($2,800) a month, Istat said. In a policy review last week, Prodi pledged to help low earners by cutting taxes.
Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa angered leftwingers by saying the measures would have to wait until first-quarter public finance figures came out.
