Italy's public debt in February reached 2.1 trillion euros (2.9 trillion U.S. dollars), 17.5 billion euros more than in January, the Italian central bank said on Monday.

On the same day, national statistics institute Istat said the annual inflation rate in the country was 0.4 percent in March, the lowest since 2009.

Recession-hit Italy has received warnings from the European Commission (EC) which said it was monitoring the eurozone's third largest economy over its "excessive macroeconomic imbalances."

Last week, the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi approved the blueprint that set Italy's economic and financial goals for the next three years.

The blueprint, which will be later submitted to the EC for approval, estimated that Italy's public debt would increase to 134.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year from 132.6 percent in 2013.

Renzi's government has promised to respect budget commitments and has set the 2014 budget deficit target to 2.6 percent of GDP, below the European Union (EU) threshold of 3 percent. Endi

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