MADRID, 22 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

At the end of the third quarter of 2023, the Spanish economy registered one of the highest levels of public debt and deficit among the countries of the euro zone, despite the progress made in reducing both metrics, according to the community statistics office. , Eurostat.

Specifically, in the third quarter of 2023, Spain's public debt amounted to 1.57 trillion euros, compared to 1.56 trillion euros in the previous three months and 1.50 trillion euros in the same period of 2022, although the ratio GDP fell to 109.8% from 111.2% in the previous three months and 114% in the third quarter of 2022.

In the euro zone as a whole, public debt in the third quarter of 2023 was 12.71 trillion euros, which represented a proportion of 89.9% of the region's GDP, below the 90.3% of the second quarter and 92.2% of the same period in 2022.

In the case of the Twenty-seven, public debt in the third quarter fell to 82.6% of GDP, despite increasing in absolute figures to 13.78 billion euros from 13.67 billion in the previous quarter. In the second quarter of 2023 the ratio was 83% and 84.6% in the third quarter of 2022.

Among EU countries, the highest public debt/GDP ratios at the end of the third quarter of 2023 were recorded in Greece (165.5%), Italy (140.6%), France (111.9%), Spain (109.8%), Belgium (108.0%) and Portugal (107.5%), and the lowest in Estonia (18.2%), Bulgaria (21%), Luxembourg (25.7%) , Sweden (29.7%) and Denmark (30.1%).

Compared to the second quarter of 2023, the largest increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio were seen in Belgium (2.1 percentage points), Latvia (1.9 pp), Slovenia (1 pp) and Romania (0.8 pp). pp), while the largest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-5.6 pp), Luxembourg (-2.6 pp), Portugal (-2.5 pp), Croatia (-2.2 pp), Italy (- 1.8 pp), Greece (-1.6 pp), Spain (-1.4 pp), the Netherlands and Slovakia (both -1 pp).

With respect to the third quarter of 2022, the largest increases in the ratio corresponded to Belgium ( 2.5 pp), Estonia ( 2.3 pp), Finland ( 2 pp), Latvia ( 1.3 pp), Slovakia, Romania and Luxembourg (the three 1 pp), as well as Lithuania ( 0.4 pp), while the most charged declines were observed in Greece (-12 pp), Portugal (-10.9 pp), Cyprus (-10.3 pp) , Croatia (-5.5 pp), Ireland (-4.9 pp), Spain (-4.2 pp), Sweden (-4 pp), Austria (-3.1 pp) and Slovenia (-3 pp) . . . .

Regarding budgetary evolution, in the third quarter of 2023, the eurozone and the EU recorded a deficit of 2.8% of their respective GDP, which in both cases represented a decrease of two tenths compared to the negative imbalance of the 3% of the second quarter.

In the third quarter of 2022, the eurozone had recorded a deficit of 4% of GDP, while for the Twenty-seven it was estimated at 3.8%.

Among euro zone countries, the largest deficits in the third quarter were in Slovakia (7%), followed by Latvia (5%), France (4.8%) and Spain (4.3%). In contrast, Portugal (2.5%), Croatia (2.2%) and Ireland (1.6%) achieved the largest surpluses in the third quarter.?