Debt ratio in Q2 still third-highest in EU at 135.4%, despite QoQ drop
The highest ratios of public debt to GDP in the second quarter were recorded in Greece (207.2%), Italy (156.3%) and Portugal (135.4%), while the lowest were in Estonia (19.6%) and Bulgaria (24.7%).
The ratio of public indebtedness to gross domestic product in the second quarter stood at 98.3% in the euro zone and 90.9% in the European Union as a whole, with Portugal remaining the country with the third-highest ratio, at 135.4%, according to the EU’s statistical office, Eurostat.
The ratio for the euro zone was down from 100% in the first quarter, but up from 94.4% a year earlier, while in the EU as a whole, the ratio was down from 98.3% in the first quarter but up from 87.2% in the second quarter of 2020.
For both the euro zone and the EU, Eurostat states, the decline in the government debt ratio at the end of the second quarter was due to the recovery in GDP, while absolute indebtedness continued to rise as government’s financed measures to mitigate the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The highest ratios of public debt to GDP in the second quarter were recorded in Greece (207.2%), Italy (156.3%) and Portugal (135.4%), while the lowest were in Estonia (19.6%), Bulgaria (24.7%) and Luxembourg (26.2%).
Portugal’s ratio saw the fourth-largest quarter-on-quarter decrease (by 3.7 percentage points) but the fourth-largest year-on-year increase (9.1 points) among EU member states.
Year on year, a total of 24 member states saw their debt-to-GDP ratio increase, with the largest rises seen in Greece (by 15.9 percentage points), Spain (12.5 points), Malta (10.8 points) and Portugal (9.1 points).
Three countries saw public debt decline compared with the second quarter of 2020: Ireland (by 3.1 percentage points), Denmark (by 1.5 points) and the Netherlands (by 0.8 of a point).
