Belgium has fifth highest public debt in Europe, says Eurostat
Belgium's public debt was the fifth worst in the EU in the first quarter of 2024, Eurostat said on Monday, based on preliminary figures. Belgium's budget deficit stood at 4.5 per cent in the same period, the agency announced.
According to the latest preliminary figures from the European statistics agency Eurostat, Belgium's debt stood at 108.2 per cent, only ranking better than Greece (159.8 per cent), Italy (137.7 per cent), France (110.8 per cent) and Spain (108.9 per cent).
For the eurozone as a whole, government debt stood at 88.7 per cent of GDP in the first quarter, while for the EU as a whole it was 82.0 per cent. This is an increase compared with the same quarter of the previous year (88.2 per cent for the euro area and 81.5 per cent for the EU).
Belgium's debt also increased by 3.1 per cent, accounting for the third strongest increase among EU countries, after Slovakia (+4.6 per cent) and Estonia (+4.0 per cent). In absolute figures, the total public debt for Belgium rose from some 615 billion euros in the last quarter of 2023 to over 638 billion euros in the first quarter of 2024.
Deficits decreased
Eurostat also released figures on European budgets on Monday. For the eurozone, it recorded a budget deficit of 3.2 per cent of GDP in the first quarter, while for the EU it was 3.0 per cent. This meant the budget deficits decreased compared to the previous quarter, when the deficit for the eurozone was 4.0 per cent and for the EU 3.9 per cent.
Belgium's budget deficit stood at 4.5 per cent of GDP in the first quarter of this year, down from 5.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023.
© BELGA PHOTO
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