Latvia was one of the 13 member states of the European Union (EU) where the general government debt to gross domestic product (GDP) increased in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period a year ago, according to data from Eurostat.
In Latvia – similarly to Poland – the government debt went up by 4.1 percentage points in Q2.
The increase in the general government debt in the second quarter was higher than in Latvia compared to this period a year ago in Finland (+5.2 percentage points) and Estonia (+4.7 percentage points). In turn, it was lower than in our country in Austria (+3.1 percentage points), Belgium (+2.3 percentage points), Romania (+2.2 percentage points) and Slovakia (+1 percentage point).
The general government debt in Czechia did not change over the course of the year.
General government debt declined in the second quarter in 13 EU countries. The largest drops were recorded in Cyprus (-10 percentage points), Greece (-8.9 percentage points), Portugal (-8.1 percentage points), Croatia (-5.7 percentage points), Spain (-3.5 percentage points) and the Netherlands (-2.2 percentage points). In Lithuania, the general government debt has decreased by 0.1 percentage points
The average drop in the EU was 0.4 percentage points, whereas the drop in Eurozone was 0.7 percentage points.