Government debt to GDP ratio at the end of last year’s third quarter dropped by 2.5 percentage points to 73.1 per cent compared to the second quarter, according to Eurostat figures published today.

This was, however, 4.6 percentage points more than in the same period in 2011.

The Eurostat report said that at the end of the third quarter last year, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 90 per cent, compared with 89.9 per cent at the end of the second quarter.

In the EU27 the ratio was 85.1 per cent, compared with 85 per cent. Compared with the third quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 86.8 to 90 per cent) and the EU27 (from 81.5 to 85.1 per cent).

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2012 were recorded in Greece (152.6 per cent), Italy (127.3 per cent), Portugal (120.3 per cent) and Ireland (117 per cent), and the lowest in Estonia (9.6 per cent), Bulgaria (18.7 per cent) and Luxembourg (20.9 per cent).

Compared with the second quarter of 2012, 15 member states registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2012, 11 a decrease and one registered no change.

The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (+5.9 percentage points), Greece (+3.4) and Portugal (+2.9), and the largest decreases in Latvia (-2.6), Malta (-2.5) and Austria (-1.3).

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