Belt-tightening across the eurozone continued apace in 2018, with both public debt and deficit figures posting a further drop, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat on Tuesday.
On average, eurozone members reported a budget deficit of 0.5 per cent, down from 1 per cent the previous year. Average debt, meanwhile, was 85.1 per cent, down from 87.1 per cent in 2017.
In both cases, the data represents a continued drop since the eurozone emerged from its prolonged financial crisis. In 2015, the deficit average stood at 2 per cent, while the debt average was 90.1 per cent.
Heavily-indebted Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy, was one of only three states that saw its debt rise, to 132.2 per cent in 2018 from 131.4 per cent in 2017.
Rome, which had an extended budget row with Brussels in 2018, has pushed through a new budget that threatens to contravene EU fiscal rules. In 2018, its deficit stood at 2.1 per cent.
Greece also reported rising debt, but it has posted budget surpluses since 2016 and formally emerged from its bailout by EU institutions in 2018. Its debt stood 181.1 per cent in 2018, while its budget surplus was 1.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, Germany recorded yet another year of budget surplus, rising from 1 per cent in 2017 to 1.7 per cent in 2018. Its debt fell from 64.5 per cent to 60 per cent.
The 28-member EU also reported dropping debt and deficit figures, at 80 and 0.6 per cent.
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