COVID caused biggest drop in income in 20 years - BoI

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 14 - The Bank of Italy said Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic led to "the biggest contraction in non-financial private incomes in 20 years in the first half of 2020". It added that this was "only combatted in part by the support measures" brought in by the government. It said per-capita primary incomes dropped by 8.8% in the first half of 2020 with respect to the same period in 2019. The bank said this was bigger than the drops registered with the credit crunch (-5.2%) and the sovereign debt crisis (-3.4%). It added that Italy's public debt shot up by 121 billion euros in the first half of last year. (ANSA).