Couples who opt to have children in Italy stand to benefit financially as the country’s health minister has called for doubling the monthly rate currently paid for the birth of a child with even more money promised for second and subsequent children.

The Daily Mail is reporting on the country’s response to its record-breaking 2015 birth rate which was the lowest recorded since the state was founded 154 years ago. The number of births fell to 488,000 last year, which represents a three percent drop.

At the same time, the country’s death rate jumped to 653,000 which is an increase of nine percent.

“If we carry on as we are and fail to reverse the trend, there will be fewer than 350,000 births a year in 10 years' time, 40 per cent less than in 2010 - an apocalypse,” said Italy’s health minister Beatrice Lorenzin. “In five years we have lost more than 66,000 births... If we link this to the increasing number of old and chronically ill people, we have a picture of a moribund country.”

The current program, which was introduced last year, pays 80 euros ($90) a month to lower income families for children born between January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2017 which is payable up to their third birthdays.

But the continued dismal birth rates in Italy has prompted Lorenzin to call for doubling the current benefit and paying even more for subsequent children – a program that could cost the country 2.2 billion euros over the next six years.

It's a tough sell for lawmakers who are scrambling to come up with ways to encourage couples to have children in spite of a stagnant economy.

“Just as the lack of positive prospects for manufacturers puts a brake on investments, difficulties young couples face, above all with work and housing, hamper their plans to have children,” said the country’s national statistics office known as ISTAT in its latest demographic report.

Even though Italy’s economic situation improved somewhat last year, growth rates remain weak and joblessness is high.

Thus far, immigration has helped to keep Italy’s population stable, but the number of migrants obtaining residency has dropped in half since 2007.

At the same time, 100,000 Italians emigrated last year as Italy continues to “lose its attractiveness both for foreign citizens and its own countrymen,” ISTAT said.

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