Italian officials said that the cost of energy imports is expected to double to more than 100 billion euros.

据今日俄罗斯电视台（RT）网站4日报道，路透社3日援引意大利经济部长达尼埃莱·佛朗哥的话称，与去年相比，意大利今年的能源进口成本预计将增加一倍多，达到100 billion euros.

Russian RT website report screenshot

Franco warned at the annual Ambruseti Business Forum that Italy could not increase expenditure unlimitedly in order to alleviate the strikes of economic suffering, and added that the rising public debt in Italy reduced the government's room for future. He introduced that compared with the cost of energy imports of 43 billion euros last year, the cost of energy imports in Italy this year is expected to increase by nearly 60 billion euros, and the increase in this money will be equivalent to about 3%of the GDP in Italy.

The Italian Economic Minister said that the substantial increase is expected to erase the net surplus of foreign exchange in Italy in recent years. "We are transferring a lot of purchasing power abroad," he said.

Data map source: Visual China

RT pointed out that there are reports that nearly 75%of Italy's energy consumption depends on imports, which makes it more vulnerable to the current energy crisis of the entire European energy. Earlier this year, 40%of Italy's natural gas was imported from Russia, and in July, the proportion of natural gas imports from Russia fell to 25%. At this point, Italy has surpassed Germany's dependence on Russia's natural gas.

Claudio Descalzi, CEO of the Italian Group (ENI), said in June that without Russia's natural gas, Italy can spend this winter. He also said that as of June this year, the filling level of Italian natural gas storage facilities was 54%, but in October, it should reach 70-80%.

In late July, EU member states agreed to reduce natural gas consumption by 15%in the next few months. The purpose was to save the natural gas in the coming winter grade to maintain the EU's energy security.

On August 31, the Euni Group stated that the daily supply of Russian gas to Italy will be reduced from 27 million cubic meters to 20 million cubic meters. On September 2nd, Russia announced that due to technical faults, it was suspended indefinitely to supply natural gas to EU countries through the "Beixi-1" pipeline. (Edit: HHJ)

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