Italy’s economic record was under scrutiny during the national election campaign on Thursday after forecasts the ruling centre-right coalition would fail to meet its budget deficit-cutting target next year.

The ISAE institute said the deficit would rise to 4.2 per cent of gross domestic product from 3.9 per cent this year, breaching a government promise last July to its European Union partners to reduce the deficit in 2007 to less than 3 per cent.