In the EU-28, seven countries recorded a higher deficit and 16 countries had higher government debt than Slovakia last year.
The 2018 Summary Annual Report, approved by the government on November 6, shows Slovakia’s government debt stood at 49.4 percent of GDP, which is a 1.9-percent improvement year-on-year, the TASR newswire reported.
However, the country’s government deficit was at 1.1 percent of GDP in 2018, which was a year-on-year drop of 0.1 percentage point.
Related articleEurostat: Slovakia's government debt and deficit decreased in 2018 Read more Slovakia thus continues to be one of the countries with a significantly lower debt within the EU. The EU average deficit was 0.7 percent of GDP, and the EU average government debt was 80.4 percent of GDP.
Best and worst performers
“Among the countries with the highest debt are countries with long-term high debts such as Italy and Belgium,” the Finance Ministry wrote in the report, as quoted by TASR.
Greece, though, tops this list of EU countries with the highest government debt, which is 181.2 percent of GDP. Conversely, Estonia recorded the lowest debt in the EU at only 8.4 percent of GDP.
Countries with the highest deficit include Cyprus at 4.4 percent of GDP, Romania with a 3-percent deficit, as well as Spain and France, both at 2.5 percent.
On the other hand, 12 EU countries managed to maintain a surplus in their public finances, including Luxembourg, Germany, Malta, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic, the Finance Ministry's report reads.
6. Nov 2019 at 21:46 | Compiled by Spectator staff
