Malta with third largest Eurozone decrease in debt to GDP ratio

Malta has registered the third largest decrease in debt to GDP ratio among its Euro area peers, the Eurostat said today.

According to the EU’s statistical office, compared with the same period last year, Member States registered a decrease in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2015 and twelve an increase, while Cyprus remained stable.

The largest decreases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (-12.5 pp), Greece (-9.7 pp), Malta (-5.8 pp) and Latvia (-5.7 pp), and the highest increases in Bulgaria (+8.1 pp), Austria (+4.2 pp), Croatia (+4.0 pp) and Finland (+3.9 pp).

Compared with the first quarter of 2015, 18 Member States registered a decrease in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2015 and ten an increase. The highest decreases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (-2.6 percentage points - pp), the Netherlands (-2.2 pp) and Croatia (-2.0 pp), and the highest increases in Cyprus (+2.9 pp), Finland (+2.0 pp) and Hungary (+2.0 pp).

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2015 were recorded in Greece (167.8%), Italy (136.0%) and Portugal (128.7%), and the lowest in Estonia (9.9%), Luxembourg (21.9%) and Bulgaria (28.3%).

At the end of the second quarter of 2015, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA19) stood at 92.2%, compared with 92.7% at the end of the first quarter of 2015. In the EU28, the ratio decreased from 88.1% to 87.8%. Compared with the second quarter of 2014, the government debt to GDP ratio fell in the euro area (from 92.7% to 92.2%) and rose in the EU28 (from 87.3% to 87.8%).

At the end of the second quarter of 2015, debt securities accounted for 79.4% of euro area and for 81.1% of EU28 general government debt, loans for 17.6% and 14.8% respectively and currency and deposits for 3.0% and 4.1%.

Due to the involvement of EU governments in financial assistance to certain Member States, quarterly data on intergovernmental lending (IGL) is also published.

The share of IGL in GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2015 amounted to 2.2% in the euro area and to 1.6% in the EU28.