The effects of the Covid crisis spares nothing or anyone, not even the Vatican treasure chest.
For the first time, the financial statements of APSA (the administration of the assets of the Apostolic See) are published, relating to the financial year 2020, which show an operating result of 21.99 million euros, down by 51.2 million compared to 2019 (it was 73.21 million). Asset management produced a result of 15.29 million (-27.1 compared to 2019), real estate management 15.25 million (-8.3), other assets a deficit of 8.56 million (with a decrease of 15.8 million on 2019). Despite the “reduced economic results”, largely due to the pandemic, APSA contributed 20.6 million to cover the Curia deficit.
The deficit is growing
“Last year’s deficit was 11.1 million euros and this year’s is 66.3 million, all in all better than we expected,” said the Vatican prefect for the economy, Guerrero Alves. “I can’t say it’s been a good year. But given the circumstances, I can say that for 2020, before the pandemic, we had budgeted for a deficit of 53 million euros. When Covid appeared, the deficit forecasts we made in the best scenario would have been 68 million euros and 146 million euros in the worst. In the average scenario, the deficit was expected to be 97 million euros, so we revised the budget in March by accepting a deficit of 82 million euros. The result that occurred instead, with a deficit of 66.3 million euros, was slightly better than the best of the hypothetical scenarios, and decidedly better than what we had forecast in the budget revised in March ». According to Alves, “the good news is that, thanks to the efforts made, the results are very close to those of a normal year. The ordinary deficit is 14.4 million euros lower than in 2019: 64.8 million euros in 2020, compared to 79.2 million euros in 2019 “.
Real estate assets
There are 4,051 real estate units managed in Italy, of which 92% of the surfaces of the properties is located in the Province of Rome, 2% is located in the provinces of Viterbo, Rieti and Frosinone, the remaining 6% is located outside Lazio . As for Rome, the greatest concentration concerns the areas immediately adjacent to the Vatican City State with 64% of the surfaces located in the central districts, 19% in the neighboring districts and 17% in the peripheral districts. About 1,200 real estate units are managed abroad (London, Paris, Geneva and Lausanne) and in Italy by investee companies. Apsa, we read, in terms of taxes for the management and possession of properties in Italy for the year 2020 paid 5.95 billion for Imu and 2.88 billion for Ires.
“We are not a company”
The administration of the resources of the Apostolic See, it is explained in the document, “is not comparable to that of a company or even to that of a State: there are no secure revenues deriving from taxes, nor public debt”. The fulfillment of the mission of the Holy See, “therefore, depends exclusively on donations and returns of goods”.