Cyprus registered a 344 million euros or + 1.8 percent of GDP total budgetary surplus in 2017 (compared to 59 million euros or + 0.3 percent of GDP for 2016), according data released today by Eurostat, the statistical service of the EU.
According to Eurostat, the Cyprus GDP increased from € 18.219 billion in 2016 to € 19.214 billion in 2017 and government debt declined from 106.6% of GDP to 97.5% of GDP (from 19.418 billion in 2016 to 18.725 billion in 2017).
As far as Greece is concerned, the country recorded a total surplus of 0.8% of GDP for 2017, compared with 0.6% in 2016, or a total of 1.454 billion euros.
Greek GDP increased from 174,199 billion euros in 2016 to 177,735 billion in 2017, and the debt level declined from 180,8% of GDP in 2016 to 178,6% of GDP in 2017 (although in absolute terms it increased from 315, 009 billion to 317.407 billion euro).
In 2017, the government deficit and debt of both the euro area (EA19) and the EU28 decreased in relative terms compared with 2016. In the euro area the government deficit to GDP ratio fell from 1.5% in 2016 to 0.9% in 2017, and in the EU28 from 1.6% to 1.0%. In the euro area the government debt to GDP ratio declined from 89.0% at the end of 2016 to 86.7% at the end of 2017, and in the EU28 from 83.3% to 81.6%.
In 2017, Malta (+3.9%), Cyprus (+1.8%), the Czech Republic (+1.6%), Luxembourg (+1.5%), Sweden and Germany (both +1.3%), the Netherlands (+1.1%), Denmark (+1.0%), Bulgaria (+0.9%), Greece and Croatia (both +0.8%) and Lithuania (+0.5%) registered a government surplus, while Slovenia reported a government balance. The lowest government deficits as a percentage of GDP were recorded in Ireland and Estonia (both -0.3%), Latvia (-0.5%) and Finland (-0.6%). Two Member States had deficits equal to or higher than 3% of GDP: Spain (-3.1%) and Portugal (-3.0%).
At the end of 2017, the lowest ratios of government debt to GDP were recorded in Estonia (9.0%), Luxembourg (23.0%), Bulgaria (25.4%), the Czech Republic (34.6%), Romania (35.0%) and Denmark (36.4%). Fifteen Member States had government debt ratios higher than 60% of GDP, with the highest registered in Greece (178.6%), Italy (131.8%), Portugal (125.7%), Belgium (103.1%) and Spain (98.3%). In 2017, government expenditure in the euro area was equivalent to 47.1% of GDP and government revenue to 46.2%. The figures for the EU28 were 45.8% and 44.9% respectively. In both zones the government expenditure ratio decreased between 2016 and 2017, while the government revenue ratio increased.
CNA
