Compared with June, the Cypriot government debt increased by €662m at the end of the third quarter, Eurostat said in a statement on its website on Monday. In the third quarter of 2015, the government debt stood at €19.2bn or 109.1% of the economy.

The EU’s debt fell to 83.3% of the bloc’s economy, or to €12.4tn, in the third quarter from 84.2% the quarter before and from 85.9% in the third quarter of 2015, Eurostat said. The euro area’s government debt dropped to 90.1% in September or €9.6tn from 91.2% in July and 91.5% in September 2015.

Greece, Italy and Portugal were the euro area members with the highest government debt as a percentage of economic output, with 176.9%, 132.7% and 130.4% respectively, Eurostat said. Estonia, Luxembourg and Latvia had the lowest debt to GDP ratio of 9.6%, 21.5% and 37.9% respectively.

Cyprus was the country with the highest increase in government debt in the third quarter compared with the quarter before in the euro area, followed by Portugal and Lithuania, Eurostat said. Greece, Italy andAustria were the countries which reduced it the most.

Still, Greece was the country which saw its government debt rise the most in a year in the third quarter, followed by Lithuania and Portugal, while Ireland, the Netherlands and Malta were the euro area countries which reduced it the most, Eurostat said.

The increase in Cypriot government debt in the third quarter resulted from the issue of a €1bn 7-year government bond in July. The government is projected to post a 2016 fiscal deficit of around 0.5% of gross domestic product which, in turn, is expected to have expanded 2.8% last year in real terms. Consumer prices dropped last year 1.4%.

In January to November, the government generated a fiscal surplus of €161.4m on a cash basis.

Source: Cyprus Mail