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It has been revealed that the deficit in Spain in 2020 reached 11% of GDP, the highest among the EU-27, while debt rose to 120% of GDP, the fourth highest in Europe. As the Spanish government prepares its budget for 2022, the spiralling debt and deficit rates in the country are being put down to Covid measures negatively impacting the economy.

 

In the EU as a whole, the deficit rose last year to just under one billion euros (922,548,000 euros), up from 76,499,000 euros in 2019. Meanwhile the EU-27 countries’ public debt rose to 12.06 trillion, up from 10.8 trillion in 2019, reaching 90.1% of EU GDP, up from 77.2% in the previous year.

 

 

According to data from Eurostat, all EU countries recorded deficits in 2020, with the largest negative imbalances belonging to Spain (-11%), Greece (-10.1%), Malta (-9.7%), Italy (-9.6%), Romania (-9.4%), Belgium and France (both -9.1%), Austria (-8.3%), Hungary (8%), Slovenia (-7.7%), Croatia (-7.4%), Lithuania (-7.2%) and Poland (-7.1%).

 

“All countries except Denmark (-0.2%) and Sweden (-2.8%) recorded deficits of more than 3% of GDP,” stated the EU statistics office.

 

 

The European countries with the lowest debt levels at the end of 2020 were Estonia (19%), Bulgaria (24.7%), Luxembourg (24.8%), the Czech Republic (37.7%) and Sweden (39.7%).

 

A total of 13 EU countries had a debt level of more than 60% of GDP in 2020, with the highest being in Greece (206.3%), Italy (155.6%), Portugal (135.2%), Spain (120%), Cyprus (115.3%), France (115%) and Belgium (112.8%).

 

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