ROME, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Italy's National Social Welfare Institute (INPS) last year got in almost 9 billion euros (about 11.37 billion U.S. dollars) of debt, with nearly half of pensioners receiving less than 1,000 euros monthly, the institute said in its annual report on Tuesday.

"The year 2012 was a horrible one not only for the economic crisis' figures, but especially for a crisis of confidence," INPS President Antonio Mastrapasqua said while presenting the report to parliament.

However, the INPS head ensured that the Italian social security system was "secure," clearing that an imbalance of almost 9 billion euros registered last year was "purely financial."

In 2012, total expenditure for over 21 million pensions paid by INPS amounted to more than 261 billion euros, or nearly 16 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the report said.

Around 7.2 million retirees, or 45.2 percent of total pensioners in Italy, had a monthly income of less than 1,000 euros. Some 31 percent had between 500 and 1,000 euros while 14 percent got less than 500 euros, the report said, also highlighting a huge gender difference.

Additionally, between 2009 and 2012, "the state disbursed through INPS 80 billion euros worth of subsidies for layoffs and unemployment" distributed to about 3 million workers on average each year, the report noted.

"The situation of pensioners in Italy is a real emergency that nobody wants to deal with," Secretary General of influential pensioners union Spi Cgil's Carla Cantone said while commenting on the figures.

"There is quite a serious problem of poverty among the elderly and pensioners, who are oppressed by the steady increase of tax burdens, the cost of living, health and welfare," she added, calling on the government to take urgent steps in order to prevent a further deterioration of the situation.

According to national statistics agency Istat, the Italian population continues to age while households are struggling amid recession deepened by the tax hikes and welfare cuts carried out over the past two years to tackle the country's massive debt crisis. (1 euro = 1.31 U.S. dollars)