With markets screaming that Europe is fixed and Italian sovereign bond spreads back near pre-crisis levels, we thought it somewhat interesting that delinquent loans in the country just surged by their most in almost 18 months as bad debt begin to re-accelerate. ANSA notes that over EUR130 billion of Italian debt is currently delinquent (+21.7% YoY) and this comes on the heels of the Bank of Italy's demand that Italian banks increase their loan loss provisions are 'disappointing' audits in March. As we noted previously [5], the percentage of loans in delinquency rose from around 3% in 2008 to 6.3% in February 2012, and assuming a relatively flat total private sector credit creation in the last year (which is probably conservative since fragmentation has been soaring), the current percentage of loans in default is approaching 8% of the total.
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