The general government deficit and public debt of the EU rose sharply

The general government deficit and public debt of the euro area and the European Union (EU) as a whole rose sharply in 2020 as a result of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The euro area general government deficit rose from 0.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 to 7.2 percent in 2020. Across the EU, the deficit rose from 0.5 percent to 6.9 percent. In Slovakia, the general government deficit increased from 1.3 percent to 5.5 percent of GDP. This was announced on Thursday by the statistical office of the European Union, Eurostat, which updated the report originally published in April. Euro area public debt rose from 83.6 percent of GDP at the end of 2019 to 97.3 percent at the end of 2020 and rose from 77.2 percent to 90.1 percent across the EU. In Slovakia, the general government deficit increased from 48.1 percent of GDP at the end of 2019 to 59.7 percent as of 31 December 2020. Last year, the public finances of all EU members ended up in deficit. Spain (11% of GDP), Greece (10.1%), Malta (9.7%) and Italy (9.6%) had the highest deficits. Almost all EU member states, except Denmark and Sweden, have run deficits above 3 percent of GDP. The Danish deficit was 0.2 percent of GDP and the Swedish deficit was 2.8 percent of GDP. At the end of last year, Estonia (19% of GDP), Bulgaria (24.7%), Luxembourg (24.8%), the Czech Republic (37.7%) and Sweden (39.7%) had the lowest public debts. Thirteen states had public debt above 60 percent of GDP. The highest public debts were in Greece (206.3% of GDP), Italy (155.6%) and Portugal (135.2%).