Portugal has the third largest public debt of the Euro Area
Both in an homologous and quarter-on-quarter comparison, Portugal has increased its public debt. It surpasses the limit by more than double.
In the Euro Area and the European Union (EU), public debt had an homologous decrease in the first quarter of 2017; Portugal had the third largest debt out of all 28 members (130.5%), after Greece and Italy, Eurostat disclosed.
Public debt in Portugal increased both in comparison to the same quarter of 2016 (128.9%) and when comparing to the previous quarter (130.3%), standing at more than double of the limit set at 60% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the Euro Area, public debt was, between January and March, of 89.5% of GDP, below the homologous 91.2%, but much more than the 89.2% from the last quarter of 2016.
Also in the EU, debt had an homologous decrease (from 84.3% to 84.1% of GDP), but increased in comparison to the October to December percentage. In the first quarter of 2017, the largest debt to GDP percentage was from Greece (176.2%), Italy (134.7%) and Portugal (130.5%); Estonia (9.2%), Luxembourg (23.0%) and Bulgaria (28.6%) had the smallest debt.
