Estonia boasted the lowest ratio of government debt to GDP in the European Union last year, with a rate of 23.6%, according to new data from Eurostat.
Other countries to report a low government debt to GDP ratio included Bulgaria (24.1%), Luxembourg (26.3%), Denmark (31.1%), Sweden (33.5%) and Lithuania (38.2%).
Several countries boasted a government debt ratio of more than 60% of GDP, the data showed, with Greece reporting the highest, at 153.6%, followed by Italy (135.3%), France (113.0%), Belgium (104.7%) and Spain (101.8%).
According to Eurostat, the government debt to GDP ratio across the EU stood at 81.0% last year, a slight increase on the 80.8% reported the previous year. In the euro area, the rate stood at 87.4%, up from 87.3%.
Government deficit to GDP
In terms of government deficit to GDP ratio, meanwhile, this stood at 3.2% in the EU and 3.1% in the euro area, down from 3.5% in both cases in 2023.
The highest government deficits were reported in Romania (‑9.3%), Poland (-6.6%), France (‑5.8%) and Slovakia (-5.3%), with 12 member states boasting deficits equal to or higher than 3% of GDP.
Several EU countries avoided a deficit last year, including Denmark (+4.5%), Ireland and Cyprus (both +4.3%), Greece (+1.3%), Luxembourg (+1.0) and Portugal (+0.7%), the data showed. Read more here.
