Debts across the Eurozone drop to €8.8 trillion in first fall since 2007
EUROZONE governments’ debt levels fell in the third quarter of 2013 according to figures from Brussels yesterday – the first time in nearly six years that debts have eased.
State debts, which have prompted political and economic crises in recent years, climbed to the equivalent of more than 90 per cent of the euro area’s GDP at the end of 2012.
But in the three months to last September, the rate dropped from 93.4 per cent of GDP to 92.7 per cent.
In money terms, total Eurozone government debt eased slightly from nearly €8.88 trillion in the second quarter of last year, to €8.84 trillion in the following quarter. The figures refer to the 17 states that made up the euro area in September, before Latvia signed up to the bloc at the start of this year.
Germany led the decline with a narrowing of its state debt from nearly €2.15 trillion to under €2.13 trillion.