In the eurozone the government deficit to GDP ratio increased from 3.5% in 2022 to 3.6% in 2023, and in the EU from 3.2% to 3.5%, Eurostat said. In the eurozone the government debt to GDP ratio decreased from 89.5% at the end of 2022 to 87.4% at the end of 2023, and in the EU from 82.5% to 80.8%.
In 2023, all Member States, except Denmark (+3.3%), Cyprus (+2.0%), Ireland (+1.5%) and Portugal (+1.2%), reported a deficit. Romania had the third highest government deficit (- 6.5%) in the EU, behind only Italy (-7.2%) and Hungary (-6.7%). Ten Member States had deficits higher than 3% of GDP.
At the end of 2023, the lowest ratios of government debt to GDP were recorded in Estonia (20.2%), Bulgaria (22.9%), Luxembourg (25.5%), Sweden (31.5%), Denmark (33.6%) and Lithuania (37.3%). Thirteen Member States had government debt ratios higher than 60% of GDP, with the highest registered in Greece (163.9%), Italy (134.8%), France (109.9%), Spain (105.1%) and Belgium (103.1%).
In 2023, government expenditure in the eurozone was equivalent to 49.5% of GDP and government revenue to 45.9%. The figures for the EU were 49.0% and 45.5%, respectively. Government revenue and expenditure ratios decreased both in the eurozone and the EU, compared to 2022.
Q2 2024 vs Q1 2024 & Q2 2024 vs Q2 2023
At the end of the second quarter of 2024, the general government gross debt to GDP ratio in the eurozone stood at 88.1%, compared with 87.8% at the end of the first quarter of 2024, Eurostat said in a separate release. In the EU, the ratio also increased from 81.3% to 81.5%.
Compared with the second quarter of 2023, the government debt to GDP ratio decreased in both the eurozone (from 88.8% to 88.1%) and the EU (from 81.9% to 81.5%).
At the end of the second quarter of 2024, the general government debt was made up of 84.0% debt securities in the eurozone and 83.6% in the EU, 13.4% loans in the euro area and 13.9% in the EU and 2.5% currency and deposits both in the eurozone and in the EU.
The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2024 were recorded in Greece (163.6%), Italy (137.0%), France (112.2%), Belgium (108.0%), Spain (105.3%), and Portugal (100.6%), and the lowest were recorded in Bulgaria (22.1%), Estonia (23.8%) and Luxembourg (26.8%). Compared with the first quarter of 2024, nine Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2024, seventeen a decrease, and the ratio remained stable in Denmark.
The largest increases in the ratio were observed in Finland (+2.0 percentage points – pp), Austria and Italy (both +1.8 pp), France (+1.6 pp), Portugal (+1.2 pp), Poland (+0.9 pp) and Sweden (+0.6 pp). The largest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-2.1 pp), Croatia (-2.0 pp), Greece (-1.8 pp), Lithuania (-1.7 pp), Spain (-0.9 pp), Czechia (-0.8 pp), the Netherlands and Germany (-0.7 pp), and Romania (-0.6 pp).
Compared with the second quarter of 2023, thirteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2024, thirteen Member States registered a decrease, and the ratio remained stable in Czechia. The largest increases in the ratio were recorded in Finland (+5.2 pp), Estonia (+4.7 pp), Latvia and Poland (both +4.1 pp), Austria (+3.1 pp), Belgium (+2.3 pp), Romania (+2.2 pp), and Slovakia (+1.0 pp). The largest decreases were observed in Cyprus (-10.0 pp), Greece (-8.9 pp), Portugal (-8.1 pp), Croatia (-5.7 pp), Spain (-3.5 pp), the Netherlands (-2.2 pp), Germany (-1.7 pp), and Luxembourg (-1.3 pp).