Pension and welfare spending in Italy last year surpassed 15% of GDP, national statistics bureau Istat confirmed on Friday.
Pension and welfare spending totalled 214.881 billion euros in 2005, up 3.3% from the previous year, equal to 15.16% of GDP, Istat said.
In 2004, pension and welfare spending was equal to 14.97% of GDP.
Istat calculated that at the end of 2005 there were 23,257,480 people drawing some form of pension, which averaged out to 9,239 euros each.
