Romania's government debt among lowest in European Union

Romania’s government debt among lowest in European Union

Newsroom 22/01/2016 | 17:57

Romania’s government debt stood at RON 259.12 billion at the end of Q3 2015, being fifth among member states in the European Union, according to data from Eurostat. Standing at 37.2 percent of GDP, the debt was 0.8 percent lower than the level registered in Q2 2015.

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2015 were recorded in Greece (171.0 percent), Italy (134.6 percent) and Portugal (130.5 percent), and the lowest in Estonia (9.8 percent), Luxembourg (21.3 percent) and Bulgaria (26.9 percent).

Compared with the second quarter of 2015, twenty-one Member States registered a decrease in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2015 and seven an increase. The highest decreases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (2.7 percent), Italy (1.4 percent), Bulgaria (1.3 percent), Finland (1.2 percent) and Malta (1.1 percent), and the highest increases in Slovenia (3.3 percent), Greece (2.1 percent) and Portugal (1.9 percent).

In the EU, the ratio decreased from 87.7 percent to 86.0 percent, driven by exchange rate fluctuations of noneuro area member states against the euro. Compared with the third quarter of 2014, the government debt to GDP ratio fell in the euro area (from 92.3 percent to 91.6 percent) and in the EU28 (from 86.9 percent to 86.0 percent).

At the end of the third quarter of 2015, debt securities accounted for 81.0 percent of EU28 general government debt, loans for 15.0 percent and currency and deposits for 4.1 percent across the bloc. The share of IGL in GDP amounted to 1.6 percent.