Italy's public debt hit a record high in May despite Rome's recent efforts to ease the overstretched finances, showed a central bank report released Monday.

The national debt stood at 2,405 billion U.S. dollars in May, up from 2,385 billion dollars a month earlier, according to the report.

Also on Monday, the International Monetary Fund predicted a negative growth of 1.9 percent for the recession-hit Italian economy in 2012.

Meanwhile, a report by Promotor, an automotive research center, showed gasoline and diesel-fuel consumption fell by a combined average of 9.7 percent in the first half of the year, the biggest drop since 1955, when the center started to collect data.

Promotor blamed the sluggish economy for the shrinking consumption, but noted that higher prices pushed total spending on gasoline and diesel up by 8.8 percent over the period.

Amid the gloomy picture, one positive figure was trade surplus in May, which was up 847 million dollars on European countries and 387 million dollars on non-European ones, according to the national statistics institute of Istat.

The surplus of 3.1 billion dollars recorded during the first five months also marked a big improvement from the 22.3-billion-dollar deficit registered in the same period last year, the agency said.

The rise in export values was determined by an increase in average unit values, with volumes largely stationary, while the drop in import values was due to a slump in volumes, Istat said.

The country's weakened credit profile prompted Moody's to cut the credit ratings of 13 Italian banks on Monday, including a drop of one notch to seven financial institutions and two notches for six others.

The downgrades came four days after the country's sovereign rating was lowered to two notches above junk status.