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Eurostat : Romania reduced significantly the government deficit in Q3
The government deficit adjusted seasonally in the European Union and the euro zone dropped in Q3 of last year down to 2.8% of GDP from a level of 3% of GDP in Q3 and the largest reduction was recorded in Romania, according to the data published by Eurostat on Monday.
According to these data, which are provisional, Romania's government deficit was 4.2% of GDP in the third quarter, down significantly from 7.6% of GDP in the second quarter.
However, when it comes to government debt, Romania is one of the member countries with the highest increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the second quarter. Only nine of the 27 EU Member States recorded an increase in their debt-to-GDP ratio over the period, with the largest increases in Belgium (2.1 percentage points), Latvia (1.9 percentage points), Slovenia (1 percentage point) and Romania (0.8 percentage points).
In the case of Romania, provisional Eurostat figures show that government debt increased from 48.2% of GDP in the second quarter to 48.9% of GDP in the third quarter.
Annually, the third quarter of 2023 by comparison to the third quarter of 2022, eight member states recorded an increase of the debt-to-GDP ratio. In this case Romania is among the countries with the highest increase of the debt (plus a percentage point) together with Belgium (2.5 percentage points), Estonia (2.3 percentage points), Finland (two percentage points), Latvia (1.3 percentage points), Slovakia and Luxembourg (both with an advance of one percentage point). In the case of Romania, the Eurostat data show that the government debt increased from 47.9% of GDP in Q3 2022 to 48.9% of GDP in Q3 2023.
The most indebted EU Member States are Greece (165.5% of GDP), Italy (140.6% of GDP), France (111.9% of GDP), Spain (109.8% of GDP), Belgium (108% of GDP) and Portugal (107.5% of GDP), while the lowest debt-to-GDP ratios are in Estonia (18.2%), Bulgaria (21%), Luxembourg (25.7%), Sweden (29.7%) and Denmark (30.1%).