Financial crisis places more Italians at risk of insolvency

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

ROME, Dec. 5 (Chinese media) -- The current global financial

crisis has placed almost half of Italian families at risk of insolvency,

according to a new study released on Friday by the Italian socio-economic think

tank Censis.

An estimated 48.8 percent of Italian families, some

12 million people, now face a "concrete risk of default" on debts they have

accumulated through "risky investment products, mortgages and consumer credit,"

Censis said.

Another 71.7 percent of Italians, Censis added, fear

that "the tempest on the markets will have direct repercussions on their

standard of living."

This has created a "generalized panic" in Italy and

become a national concern on top of existing fears about crime, immigration,

jobs and other social problems, Censis observed.

According to the study, the fear of Italians of

losing their standard of living was across the board and included young and old,

men and women and people in the north as well as the south.

Among the families at risk of default, Censis said

2.8 million, or 11.8 percent of the total, had invested in risky products like

stocks and mutual funds. And almost half of these had invested all their life

savings.

Censis also pointed out that almost two million

Italian families, 8.2 percent of the total, had to grapple with mortgage

payments on the home they lived in and of these 250,000 had great difficulties

in making payments.

Another 3.1 million Italian families, 12.8 percent of

the total, have accumulated debt through consumer credit, mostly credit cards,

and 971,000 had debts of over 30 percent of their family income.

In order to survive the current financial crisis,

more Italians are tightening their belts with 25 percent spending less in order

to make ends meet, Censis said.