In the third Quarter of 2017, Cyprus debt was 103.2% compared to 106.1% in Quarter 2 of 2017 and 110.6% in Quarter 3 of 2016.

The government debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio in the euro area (EA19) was recorded at 88.1% at the end of the third quarter of 2017, compared to 89.0% at the end of the second quarter of 2017. In the EU28, the ratio also decreased by 0.8 percentage points (pp). Compared to the third quarter of 2016, the government debt to GDP ratio fell in both the euro area (by 1.6pp) and the EU28 (by 0.4pp).

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of Q3 2017 were recorded in Greece (177.4%), Italy (134.1%) and Portugal (130.8%), and the lowest in Estonia (8.9%), Luxembourg (23.4%) and Bulgaria (25.6%).

Compared to Q2 of 2017, only three Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2017, the highest being recorded in Greece (+1.3%) and Belgium (+0.9%). The largest decreases were recorded in the Czech Republic (-4.3%), Cyprus (-2.9%), Lithuania (-2.3%) and Bulgaria (-2.1%).

Cyprus News Agency reported that: “Compared with the third quarter of 2016, three Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2017, twenty four recorded a decrease and Latvia remained stable.”

On an annual basis, the largest decreases were recorded in Cyprus (-7.4%), the Netherlands (-4.5%), Malta (-4.4%) and Germany (-4.1%).