The Diplomat
The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures implemented to contain it in 2020 triggered the budget imbalance and public indebtedness of EU countries, with particular impact on Spain, where the deficit reached 11% of GDP, the highest among the EU-27, while debt rose to 120% of GDP, the fourth highest ratio, according to Eurostat data.
In the EU as a whole, the deficit rose last year to €922.548 billion from €76.499 billion in 2019, a ratio of 6.9% of GDP, up from 0.5% in the year before the pandemic, while EU-27 public debt rose to 12.06 trillion from 10.8 trillion in 2019, reaching 90.1% of EU GDP from 77.2% in the previous year, Europa Press reports.
Among euro countries, the 2020 budget deficit was 7.2% of GDP, equivalent to a negative imbalance of 821.739 billion, compared with a deficit of 0.6% of GDP, or 77.141 billion, in 2019.
In turn, the debt of the Nineteen amounted in 2020 to €11.09 trillion, compared to €10 trillion in 2019, representing a ratio of 97.3% instead of 83.6% of GDP recorded in 2019.
According to Eurostat data, all EU countries recorded deficits in 2020, with the largest negative imbalances corresponding to Spain (-11%), Greece (-10.1%), Malta (-9.7%), Italy (-9.6%), Romania (-9.4%), Belgium and France (both -9.1%), Austria (-8.3%), Hungary (8%), Slovenia (-7.7%), Croatia (-7.4%), Lithuania (-7.2%) and Poland (-7.1%).
“All countries except Denmark (-0.2%) and Sweden (-2.8%) recorded deficits of more than 3% of GDP,” the EU statistics office said.
In terms of debt levels, at the end of 2020 the lowest ratios were observed in Estonia (19%), Bulgaria (24.7%), Luxembourg (24.8%), Czech Republic (37.7%) and Sweden (39.7%).
A total of 13 EU countries had debt ratios above the 60% of GDP threshold at the end of 2020, with the highest ratios in Greece (206.3%), Italy (155.6%), Portugal (135.2%), Spain (120%), Cyprus (115.3%), France (115%) and Belgium (112.8%).
