National statistics bureau Istat on Wednesday again revised its data for the Italian economy last year and said GDP fell by 5.1%, when corrected for the number of working days. Istat had initially put the decline in GDP at 4.9% and then on March 1 revised this to 5%.

Looking at the last quarter of 2009, Istat said GDP fell by 0.3% over the previous three-month period and was down 3% from the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to its previously calculated declines of 0.2% and 2.8% respectively.

Last year's decline in GDP was the greatest drop since Istat began collecting data in 1971.

According to the consumer group Codacons, the decline in GDP was "unprecedented. Only during the Second World War, in particular from 1943 to 1945, did the economy shrink by so much". "In view of such an extraordinary crisis the government should have adopted extraordinary measures to support households, like by easing tax pressure," Codacons added.

"Instead it only adopted high-profile image measures like fake incentives to buy appliances, thus making the crisis worse and delaying a recovery," the group said.

Industrial employers association Confindustria was unhappy with Wednesday's Istat data and observed that it was unlikely that GDP would expand by more than 1% this year. The retail services association Confesercenti said getting the economy back on the road to recovery had to be the country's top priority and suggested that the best way to do this was to ease tax pressure on small and medium-sized businesses.

In its March 1 report, Istat also revised its data for 2007 and 2008, reducing the 1.6% rise in 2007 to 1.5% and expanding the 1% decline in 2008 to 1.3%.

According to Istat, Italy's deficit/GDP ratio rose to 5.3% from 2.7% in 2008 while the public debt rose to 115.8% of GDP, at 1,761.191 billion euros, from 105.5% in 2008.

The March 1 Istat report also showed that for the first time since 1991 Italy posted a primary deficit rather than surplus, with state revenue excluding interest payments on existing debt falling by 0.6% of GDP, compared to a surplus of 2.5% in 2008.