The government-debt-to-GDP ratio across the European Union and the euro zone inched down slightly in Q3 2019 compared with the previous quarter. In the same period, Croatia was among EU countries with the largest quarter-on-quarter drops, the EU statistics bureau Eurostat reported on Tuesday.

At the end of Q3 2019, the government-debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU was 80.1 percent, down from 81.4 percent in Q2 2019. At the same time, the ratio in the 19-member euro zone fell to 86.1 from 87.1 percent.

Croatia’s government-debt-to-GDP ratio was 74.9 percent in Q3 2019, down by 1.2 percentage points from the previous quarter.

The highest ratios in Q3 2019 were recorded in Greece (178.2 percent), Italy (137.3 percent), Portugal (120.5 percent), Belgium (102.3 percent) and France (100.5 percent) and the lowest in Estonia (9.2 percent), Luxembourg (20.2 percent) and Bulgaria (20.6 percent).

Compared with the second quarter of 2019, four member states registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2019 and twenty-three a decrease, while the ratio remained stable in Germany. Increases in the ratio were observed in Romania (+1.4 percentage points – pp), France (+0.9 pp), Slovenia (+0.4 pp) and Bulgaria (+0.2 pp). The largest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-9.2 pp), Malta (-2.3 pp), the Netherlands (-1.7 pp), Finland (-1.5 pp), Greece (-1.4 pp), Ireland (-1.3 pp), Croatia and Czechia (both -1.2 pp).

Compared with the third quarter of 2018, seven member states registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2019 and twenty-one a decrease. The largest increases in the ratio were recorded in Romania (+1.4 pp), Italy (+1.2 pp), France (+1.1 pp) and Lithuania (+1.0 pp), while the largest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-10.1 pp), Portugal (-5.0 pp), Ireland (-4.7 pp), Austria (-4.5 pp) and Greece (-4.1 pp).

Croatia’s government debt to GDP ratio, compared with the third quarter of 2018, increased by a mere 0.1 percentage point, Eurostat’s data showed. Deficit remains stable in both EU and euro area

In the third quarter of 2019, the seasonally adjusted general government deficit to GDP ratio stood at 0.9% in the EU, the same as in the second quarter, and at 0.7% in the euro area, unchanged from the previous quarter.

Compared with the third quarter of 2018, the general government deficit to GDP ratio increased by 0.2 percentage points in the EU and by 0.1 percentage point in the euro area.

The largest deficit, of 4.9%, was recorded in Romania, while the largest surpluses were observed in Bulgaria and Denmark, of 2.4% and 2.3% respectively.

Data for Croatia and five other member states were not given. They were marked “confidential or Eurostat estimate.”