ROME, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Italy risks being excluded from the euro zone unless it adopts real structural reforms, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) advisor Nouriel Roubini, ItalianNews Agency ANSA reported on Monday.

    "Without real reforms, the probability that this (exclusion) takes place are very high, perhaps in the next five years," Roubini, professor at New York University and a former U.S. Treasury Department official, warned in an interview published in German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche.

    He added Italy's current economic situation paralleled with that of Argentina before it went bankrupt: the threat of the economy's weakness is increasing and public debt rising.

    If Italy's debt enters an upward spiral, "this will force Italy to abandon monetary union in order to restructure its public debt," Roubini noted.

    In order to get out of this crisis, the IMF advisor said, Italy needs a major push in productivity.

    "In recent years, salaries in Italy have risen more than productivity. Thus the labor market must become more flexible, redtape needs to be cut and greater competition is needed," he said.

    The alternative, he added, would be "a drastic reduction in earnings in order to become more productive. Slow reforms and rising salaries are not a good mix."

    According to Roubini, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in part to blame for this situation, who talked a lot about economic liberalism but missed the chance to modernize the Italian economy.

    The Italian public debt grew by 12.24 percent between 2001 and 2005, adding 2,813 euros to the burden of each Italian to a total 25, 786 euros per capita, according to the Italian consumer rights association ADUSBEF. Enditem