Italy could end 1999 with a slimmer than expected state sector borrowing requirement (SSBR) of around 40 trillion lire ($22 billion), the Treasury Under-secretary Mr Giorgio Macciotta was quoted as saying yesterday. "The public accounts are going well, much better than we could have hoped," Mr Macciotta told business daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

"According to pessimistic forecasts the deficit will be around 53 trillion lire at the end of the year but in actual fact we expect the outcome to be much closer to 40 trillion."

Italy's cumulative SSBR for the first seven months of 1999 was 31.9 trillion lire, well below the 44.959 trillion in the same period of 1998.