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The public debt was 86.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the euro zone at the end of the third quarter of 2018, amounting to some 9,898 billion euros, as against 86.3% of GDP at the end of the second quarter of last year and 88.2% one year ago.
On a quarterly basis, the debt also went down in the European Union, going from 81% to 80.8%, according to data from the European Statistical Office, Eurostat.
Belgium had the fifth highest debt as a percentage of GDP in the EU (105%, 471,325 billion euros), after Greece (182.2%), Italy (133%), Portugal (125%) and Cyprus (110.9%).
Public deficit as a percentage of GDP in the Euro zone was 0.5% in the third quarter of 2018, higher than in the second quarter, when it was 0.3%. The combined deficit of the 28 EU members was equivalent to 0.6% of GDP as against 0.4% in the preceding quarter.
Maria Novak
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