Bulgaria 2nd in EU by Low Govt Debt to GDP

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | July 22, 2013, Monday // 14:48
Bulgaria 2nd in EU by Low Govt Debt to GDP: Bulgaria 2nd in EU by Low Govt Debt to GDP At the end of Marchn2013, Bulgaria's government debt to GDP was BGN 14.1 B, file photo

Bulgaria is among the EU member states with the lowest government debt, according to data released Monday by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

At the end of March 2013, it was BGN 14.1 B or 18% from the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, and compared to the last quarter of the 2012, it went down by half percent. It was 16.7% of GDP in the first quarter of 2012.

Only Estonia is ahead of Bulgaria with 10%, while Luxembourg is third with 22.4%.

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2013 were recorded in Greece (160.5%), Italy (130.3%), Portugal (127.2%) and Ireland (125.1%).

According to Eurostat, at the end of the first quarter of 2013, the government debt to GDP ratio in the Eurozone stood at 92.2%, compared with 90.6% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. In the EU the ratio increased from 85.2% to 85.9%.

Compared with the first quarter of 2012, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the Eurozone (from 88.2% to 92.2%) and the EU (from 83.3% to 85.9%).

At the end of the first quarter of 2013, securities other than shares accounted for 77.1% of Eurozone and for 79.0% of EU general government debt. Loans made up 18.4% and 15.9% respectively of government debt. Currency and deposits represented 2.7% of Eurozone and 3.6% of EU government debt.

Due to the involvement of EU governments in financial assistance to certain Member States, and in order to obtain a more complete picture of the evolution of government debt, quarterly data on intergovernmental lending (IGL) was also published.

The share of IGL in GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2013 amounted to 2.1% for the Eurozone and to 1.6% for the EU.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2012, twenty-one Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2013, and six a decrease.

The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (+7.7 percentage points - pp), Belgium (+4.7 pp) and Spain (+4.0 pp), and the largest decreases in Latvia (-1.5 pp), Denmark (-0.8 pp) and Germany (-0.7 pp).

Compared with the first quarter of 2012, twenty-four Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2013, and three a decrease.

The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Greece (+24.1 pp), Ireland (+18.3 pp), Spain (+15.2 pp), Portugal (+14.9 pp) and Cyprus (+12.6 pp), while the decreases were recorded in Latvia (-5.1 pp), Lithuania (-1.9 pp) and Denmark (-0.2 pp).

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Tags: eurostat, government debt, GDP, Bulgaria, Estonia, IGL

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