In the eurozone, the ratio of public debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell to 86.4%, compared to 87.3% in the same period last year and 86.5% in the first three months of the year.

In the EU, public debt fell to 80.5% between April and June, both in the year-on-year comparison (81.5%) and in the quarterly variation (81.1%), with Portugal as the third-highest ratio (121.2% of GDP), after Greece (180.2%) and Italy (138.0%).

The lowest public debt ratios were recorded in Estonia (9.3%), Luxembourg (20.3%) and Bulgaria (20.4%).

According to the European Statistical Office, Portugal recorded the third-largest decline in public debt compared to the second quarter of 2018 (4.5 percentage points) and the largest in comparison to the first three months of the year (2.5 points), among the 28 Member States.

The largest year-on-year increases were observed in Cyprus (6.4 points), Greece (2.7 points) and Italy (2.0 points) and the main falls in Hungary and Slovenia (-5.2 points each), Austria (-4.7 points), Portugal (-4.5) and Ireland (-4.4).

From the first to the second quarter of the year, the debt share as a percentage of GDP fell most in Portugal (-2.5 points), Greece (-1.9) and Ireland (-1.6) and the main advances in Cyprus (4.0 points), Lithuania (2.1) and Finland (1.8 percentage points).

Compared to the second quarter of 2018, eight member states saw their public debt grow and the remaining 20 saw their public debt fall, while in comparison with the first three months of the year, the debt burden rose in ten member states, fell in 16 and remained stable in Spain and France.