Data published by the EU’s official statistics office reveal that between July and September of last year, the ratio of public debt to GDP fell to 86.1 percent in the Eurozone and to 80.1 percent in the Union as a whole, which represents decreases in both the quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparisons.
In the previous quarter, between April and June 2019, public debt was 86.4 percent in the Eurozone and 80.4 percent in the 28 member states, while in the third quarter of 2018 it stood at 87.1 percent in the single currency area and 81.4 percent in the Union as a whole.
Portugal maintained in the third quarter of 2019 the third-highest public debt ratio in the EU, its 120.5 percent being surpassed only by Greece (178.2 percent) and Italy (137.3 percent), but continues to maintain a consistent downward trend, registering the second-highest decrease in year-on-year terms (-5.0 percentage points, compared to the ratio of 125.5 percent in the third quarter of 2018), while in the quarter-on-quarter change it fell 0.6 points (it was 121.1 percent in the second quarter of 2019).
The member states with the lowest public debt in the third quarter of last year were Estonia (9.2 percent), Luxembourg (20.2 percent) and Bulgaria (20.6 percent).