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Eurozone gov't deficit ratio falls in 2015

Xinhua, April 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

The government deficit and debt ratio to gross domestic product (GDP) in both the 19-nation bloc and the wider EU decreased as compared to last year, Eurostat said on Thursday.

The EU statistics agency said eurozone government deficit to GDP ratio fell from 2.6 percent in 2014 to 2.1 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, the government debt to GDP ratio declined to 90.7 percent from 92.0 percent last year.

In the wider 28-nation bloc, government deficit to GDP ratio declined to 2.4 percent from 3.0 percent and government debt to GDP slipped to 85.2 percent from 86.8 percent.

In 2015, Luxembourg, Germany and Estonia registered a government surplus, while the lowest government deficits as a percentage of GDP were recorded in Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Romania and Cyprus.

Government expenditure in the euro area was equivalent to 48.6 percent of GDP and government revenue to 46.6 percent.

Seven member states including Greece, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, Croatia and Slovakia had deficits equal to or higher than 3 percent of GDP.

Seventeen member states had government debt ratios higher than 60 percent of GDP, with the highest registered in Greece at 176.9 percent.

The lowest ratios of government debt to GDP were recorded in Estonia at 9.7 percent. Endit