Given its size and the need to service each year a significant amount (around € billion), the danger of triggering a vicious circle between the cost of the debt and its share of GDP, with repercussions on the real economy, is ever present.
Around two thirds of the debt is currently held by Italian citizens and institutions; but this does not insulate it from the laws of the market, which seeks out yields and flees from uncertainty. Fluctuations in the value of the debt also have an impact on the Italian citizens, households, firms and financial institutions that hold it.