The most recent revision of the national economic accounts by ISTAT showed a deficit of 3.1% of GDP in 2025. The Italian government anxiously anticipated this figure, as it effectively confirms Italy's continued participation in the European excessive deficit procedure for 2026. This procedure is outlined in the Stability and Growth Pact, a collection of European regulations that are designed to guarantee the stability of public finances by controlling debt. Up until 2019, Italy had steadily decreased its deficit and maintained its compliance with the deficit limit, with the ultimate objective of reducing public debt. With the pandemic and the necessity to cope with mounting expenses for the health emergency and the economic crisis, Italy continually exceeded the limit, culminating at 9.4 percent in 2020, the year the pandemic began. Italy's government had established a goal of reducing the deficit to below 3 percent by 2025 in order to exit the procedure this year. Nevertheless, in March, ISTAT reported that the deficit was still above the threshold by a mere one-tenth of a percentage point, a figure that has since been verified. This was not merely an accounting target. The government will be unable to access loans from the SAFE (Security Action for Europe) fund this year to increase military spending, and it will also be unable to benefit from the National Escape Clause for Defense Expenditure, a safeguard clause that would enable Italy to negotiate plans to comply with the more lenient European budget constraints, excluding defense spending from the budgetary constraints to be contained.