CYPRUS government debt increased by 8.3% in Q2 2012

According to the Statistical Office of the EU, at the end of the second quarter of 2012 Cyprus` government debt reached 14.939 billion euro or 83.3% of GDP. In the first quarter of 2012, the government debt in Cyprus reached 13.470 billion euro or 75.0% of GDP.

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2012 were recorded in Greece(150.3%), Italy (126.1%), Portugal (117.5%) and Ireland (111.5%), and the lowest in Estonia (7.3%), Bulgaria (16.5%) and Luxembourg (20.9%).

Compared with the first quarter of 2012, twenty Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2012, six a decrease and one remained stable. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Greece (+13.4 percentage points – pp), Cyprus (+8.3 pp) and Portugal (+5.6 pp), and the largest decreases in Lithuania (-2.3 pp), Latvia and Hungary (both -1.3 pp).

Compared with the second quarter of 2011, twenty-three Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2012, and four a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Cyprus (+16.5 pp), Portugal (+10.8 pp), Ireland (+10.0 pp) and Spain (+9.3 pp), and the largest decreases in Greece (-8.5 pp) and Latvia (-1.5 pp).

At the end of the second quarter of 2012, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA17) stood at 90.0%, compared with 88.2% at the end of the first quarter of 2012. In the EU27 the ratio increased from 83.5% to 84.9%.