EU's GDP revisions likely to lower Italy's debt-to-GDP figures - ISTAT

ROME (Reuters) - A new accounting standard adopted by the European Union from September may reduce Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio - the second-highest in the region after Greece - by as much as 2 percentage points, an official at Italy's statistics agency ISTAT said.

The European Commission said earlier on Thursday that the revisions to accounting methods would end up raising past and future Italian gross domestic product (GDP) growth figures and forecasts by 1-2 percentage points.

The effect on the country's debt-to-output ratio will be "proportional" to the revision, Gian Paolo Oneto, the statistician in charge of producing the annual gross domestic product and public finance figures, told Reuters.

The government currently expects the public debt to total 132.7 percent of GDP at the end of this year.

But on the government's budget deficits, Oneto said it was "almost impossible" that there would be major changes.

Italy has often struggled to keep its deficits below the EU target ceiling of 3 percent of GDP.

The government says that in 2013 the economy likely shrank by 1.8 percent as a two-year recession dragged on, with the deficit last year seen right on 3 percent of GDP.

ISTAT is due to publish its 2013 GDP, debt and deficit data on March 3.

The switch to the European System of Accounts 2010, replacing the old ESA 1995, is part of a worldwide move to a new accounting regime called System of National Accounts 2008, which the United States implemented last August.

(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni; Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Hugh Lawson)