Some 4.1 million or 6.8 percent of people were living in absolute poverty in 2014 , fewer than in the previous year but still over twice pre-crisis levels, data from Italy's statistics agency Istat showed on Wednesday.
Migrants and people in Italy‘s underdeveloped south were among the most deprived groups, Istat said. A total 23.4 percent of households made up of foreigners lived in absolute poverty last year, Istat noted.
Istat Chairman Giorgio Alleva called the latest figures "non negative," noting that Italy‘s poverty indicators had stopped worsening, halting a two-year slide.
In 2013, 7.3 percent of people in Italy were living in absolute poverty, compared with 5.9 percent in 2012, while in 2007, before the global economic downturn, the percentage was 3.1 percent, Istat said.
"Italy has objectively turned around a corner, but there is still a lot to do," Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi commented on the latest poverty data.
"It‘s good news but I‘ll be happy when I see [greater economic] growth."
One of Italy's biggest trade unions CGIL said Italy's economic situation was still serious.
"The index has stabilized, but in any case, the numbers show that poor people have doubled compared to the start of the crisis. The government should not rejoice, but intervene," CGIL executive Vera Lamonica said.
Several opposition politicians blasted Renzi for expressing satisfaction at the data signalling that millions of people in Italy were still impoverished while children's charities voiced alarm that there were 1.45 million minors living in absolute poverty.
The Italian economy exited its worst post-war recession between January and March, expanding by 0.3 percent and is predicted to grow just 0.7 percent this year.
But the economy has shrunk by a tenth compared with 2007.
