Public debt in the eurozone is reported to have hit a new record. Public debt in the euro area rose to a record high of €13.11 trillion in the second quarter of 2022, after topping €12 trillion for the first time in the second quarter, Eurostat reported.
Compared with the last quarter of 2019, the last quarter before the pandemic hit, countries increased their debt by as much as €2tn, bringing total eurozone debt to €10.05tn at the start of 2020. In 2007, before the crisis, the euro zone’s public debt was half what it is now: €6.2 trillion. Public debt hit a new record after climbing to €13.11tn in the quarter, up from €12.99tn in the previous quarter. Since the fourth quarter of 2019, eurozone public debt has increased by a whopping €2tn.
In the eurozone, the debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 94.2 per cent from 95.2 per cent, while in the EU as a whole it was 86.4 per cent, down from 87.5 per cent three months earlier.
Spain has the highest public debt-to-GDP ratio of the 27 European Union countries in the top four, at 116%. The largest deficit is in Greece (182%), followed by Italy (150.2%) and Portugal (123.4%). The lowest debt ratios in the EU are in Estonia (16.7 percent), Bulgaria (21.3 percent) and Luxembourg (25.4 percent).
Debt-to-gdp ratios rose in four member states (Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) at the end of the second quarter of 2022 compared with the same period last year, while they fell in another 23.
Post time: Oct-26-2022