Italian government said on Wednesday the country's economy would return to modest growth in 2013, but some studies forecast more difficult times for the debt crisis-hit country.

Presenting the Economics and Finance Document (DEF) 2012 approved on Wednesday by his cabinet of technocrats, Prime Minister Mario Monti said the country's accounts will be balanced next year.

The report, the second of its kind presented by Italy as part of the European Semester of coordination of macroeconomic and budget policies, foresees an economic growth of 0.9 percent in 2015 and 2.4 percent in 2020, while GDP is expected to contract 1.2 percent this year.

The Italian economy could also grow by an additional five points by 2020 thanks to "more intense reforms" if the government meets the targets of cutting administrative costs by 23 percent, barriers to launching businesses by 35 percent, and production costs by 4.3 percent.

Monti, whose emergency cabinet passed a tough 30-billion-euro (40-billion-U.S. dollars) austerity package last December, said the crisis Italy has been going through since 2008 "can have a long impact ... but a destructive shock has been avoided."

"Restoring an Italy capable to grow is a task that has just begun. We strive every day to avoid the tragic fate of Greece," he told a press conference after the DEF approval.

Stimulating growth within a model of public-finance stability was the right path for building a modern social market economy, said the former European Union competition commissioner, who was named to replace former premier Silvio Berlusconi last November in a bid to save Italy from a stubborn debt crisis.

An infrastructure program of 70-80 billion euros, and investments in removable energies worth three billion euros per year in the next 20 years were among the moves needed to spark sustainable growth in order to pull out of recession.

A task force aimed at stimulating the internationalization of small- and medium-sized companies and reforms to simplify stifling bureaucracy were also in the government's growth plan.

However, these targets were optimistic compared to some worrying data released by other national bodies on Wednesday, one day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report that the Italian economy would shrink by 0.3 percent next year.

The Italian leading industrial association Confindustria said that labor market was "deteriorating" in a country where unemployment has exceeded 9.3 percent with over 2.3 million people out of work, and that it was destined to worsen further.

According to a study by Rome-based Censis think tank, by the end of 2012, the value of Italian homes would drop 20 percent, with peaks of over 50 percent, as "to cope with the new levy, families will sell their second homes."

In addition, the Mediterranean country has lost 26,000 businesses in the first quarter of 2012, according to data released by the Union of the Chambers of Commerce.

Another alarming signal of the mounting crisis was the sudden growth of the number of stealing in supermarkets, which saw a 7.8-percent hike last year, local media reported.

Unemployed young people as well as entrepreneurs in fear for the destiny of their companies were among Italians most affected by the ongoing difficult period.

According to data released on Tuesday by EURES economic and social research institute, since the outbreak of the financial crisis, Italy has seen a worrying escalation in the number of suicides which stood at two per day on average in 2010, and is still advancing.

At least 23 Italians have deliberately put an end to their lives for economic reasons since last January, a tragic trend that according to experts was triggered by "loss of security, loneliness and despair."