AKIPRESS.COM - The European Central Bank (ECB) has warned Italy over lacking results in reducing its budget deficit, Irish Sun reported.

“Italy has not made tangible progresses in respect of the European Commission's recommendation to bring its deficit down to 2.6% of GDP from the 3% in 2013,” the ECB said Thursday.

The Central Bank asked Italy to implement “the necessary steps” to reduce its deficit and to put its public debt on “a downward path”.

Italy's economy, the eurozone's third largest, is still struggling to emerge from its worst recession in 40 years.

It showed a meager 0.1% growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2013, and the European Commission recently downgraded its growth forecast to 0.6% for 2014. Unemployment reached a record high rate of 12.9% in January, with a 42.4% rate among young people.

The EU Commission put Italy, Slovenia and Croatia on its watchlist at the beginning of March because all three countries have high public debt and weak competitiveness.

Italian debt is the second largest in the eurozone after Greece's, equaling 132.7% of economic output in 2013. EU predictions showed it might reach 133.7 this year.