Malta sees sharpest EU drop in government debt

Malta recorded the sharpest drop in government debt in the EU during the third quarter of last year, Eurostat figures issued today show.

Eurostat said that at the end of the third quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA17) stood at 87.4%, down compared with 87.7% at the end of the second quarter of 2011. In the EU27 the ratio increased from 81.7% to 82.2%. Compared with the third quarter of 2010, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 83.2% to 87.4%) and the EU27 (from 78.5% to 82.2%).

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2011 were recorded in Greece (159.1%), Italy (119.6%), Portugal (110.1%) and Ireland (104.9%), and the lowest in Estonia (6.1%), Bulgaria (15.0%) and Luxembourg (18.5%).

Compared with the second quarter of 2011, fourteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2011, and thirteen a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Hungary (+4.8 percentage points - pp), Greece (+4.4 pp) and Portugal (+3.6 pp), and the largest decreases in Italy and Malta (both -1.6 pp) and Romania (-1.0 pp).

Compared with the third quarter of 2010, twenty Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2011, and seven a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Greece (+20.3 pp), Portugal (+18.9 pp) and Ireland (+16.5 pp), and the largest decreases in Sweden (-1.6 pp), Luxembourg (-1.4 pp) and Bulgaria (-0.9 pp).

See full statement and graphs by clicking on the pdf below.