SOFIA (Bulgaria), January 22 (SeeNews) – Slovenia, Croatia, and Bulgaria reported the highest annual growth of government debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio in the EU in the third quarter of 2014, the bloc's statistics authority said on Wednesday.
The debt-to-GDP ratio in Slovenia rose by an annual 16.8 percentage points in the third quarter of last year, while in Croatia and Bulgaria it increased by 7.3 percentage points and by 6.6 percentage points, respectively, according to Eurostat data published on its website.
Bulgaria also posted the highest quarterly increase of debt-to-GDP ratio - of 3.1 percentage points to 23.6% - in the July-September period of last year.
The EU's average debt-to-GDP ratio was 86.6% at the end of September, up by an annual 1.3 percentage points.
Details about the third-quarter debt-to-GDP ratio in the bloc's southeast European member states follow:
|
Govt debt (mln in national currency) |
Govt debt (mln in national currency) |
% of GDP |
% of GDP |
Q3’14 compared with: |
Q3’14 compared with: |
|
Q3’14 |
Q3’13 |
Q3’14 |
Q3’13 |
Q3’13 |
Q2’14 |
Bulgaria |
19,340 |
13,614 |
23.6 |
17.1 |
6.6 |
3.1 |
Croatia |
256,123 |
234,098 |
78 |
70.7 |
7.3 |
1.0 |
Slovenia |
28,933 |
21,921 |
61.3 |
78.1 |
16.8 |
-0.2 |
Romania |
252,828 |
238,896 |
38.1 |
38.4 |
-0.3 |
0.2 |
Slovenia joined the EU in 2004, Romania and Bulgaria followed suit in 2007 and Croatia became the bloc's 28th member on July 1, 2013.