Largest increases in ratio were seen in Spain, Hungary, Malta, shows Eurostat data
The EU’s government debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 90.1% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to 89.2% from the same period in 2020, the bloc’s statistical agency announced on Friday.
A total of 15 countries posted increases in their debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter, while 12 saw theirs decline, Eurostat noted.
Spain saw the largest increase in the ratio with 7.8 percentage points, followed by Hungary (6.5 points), Malta (5.7 points), Austria (5.6 points) and Romania (5.5 points), while steepest falls were in the Greek Cypriot administration (minus 6.4 points), Ireland (minus 3.6 points), the Netherlands (minus 2.5 points),Denmark (minus 2.4 points), Croatia (minus 2.3 points), and Sweden (minus 2.2 points).
Meanwhile, the EU’s seasonally adjusted general government deficit-to-GDP ratio stood at 3.7% in the third quarter of 2021.
“Significant decreases in the deficits compared to the second quarter of 2021 were observed, but the deficits remained at a high level compared to the pre-pandemic period,” said Eurostat.