Croatia is ranked among those EU member states whose government deficit in the second quarter of 2019 increased significantly compared to the first quarter, shows the latest Eurostat report released on Tuesday.

The general government gross debt to GDP in Croatia in Q2 was 76.4%, up 1.5 percentage points on the quarter, Eurostat data shows.

EU member states with a higher increase in government deficit include Cyprus (+4 pp), Lithuania (+2.1 pp) and Finland (+1.8 pp).

The largest decreases were recorded in Portugal (-2.5 pp), Greece (-1.9 pp) and Ireland (-1.6 pp).

Hungary and Slovenia record highest decrease in public debt on the year

Compared to the same quarter last year the gross general government debt to GDP in Croatia decreased by 0.3 percentage points.

The largest decreases were recorded in Hungary and Slovenia (both -5.2 pp), Austria (-4.7 pp), Portugal (-4.5 pp) and Ireland (-4.4 pp).

The largest increases in the ratio were recorded in Cyprus (+6.4 pp), Greece (+2.7 pp) and Italy (+2.0 pp).

Highest rate of government debt in Q2 in Greece and Estonia

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2019 were recorded in Greece (180.2%), Italy (138.0%), Portugal (121.2%), Cyprus (107.2%) and Belgium (104.7%) and the lowest in Estonia (9.3%), Luxembourg (20.3%) and Bulgaria (20.4%).