At the end of the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021 government debt to GDP ratio in Cyprus was 5.4 percentage points lower compared to Q3 of 2021, and 11.4 percentage points lower than at the end of Q4 in 2020.

The data on Cyprus were among debt-to-GDP data for the euro area and European Union released on Monday by Eurostat.

At the end of Q4 2021, the debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 95.6 per cent, compared to 97.5 per cent at the end of the third quarter of the same year.

A press release said that in the euro area, the decrease in the debt to GDP ratio was due to an increase in GDP and a slight drop in the nominal debt in absolute terms, while for the EU nominal debt continued to increase slightly but was outweighed by the increase in GDP.

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of Q4 2021 were recorded in Greece (193.3 per cent), Italy (150.8 per cent), Portugal (127.4 per cent), Spain (118.4 per cent), France (112.9 per cent), Belgium (108.2 per cent) and Cyprus (103.6 per cent), over the EU average.

At the end of Q4 2021, debt securities accounted for 82.6 per cent of euro area – and 82.3 per cent of EU – general government debt. Loans comprised 14.2 per cent and 14.7 per cent, respectively, and currency and deposits represented 3.1 per cent of euro area and 3.0 per cent of EU government debt.

Eurostat also published quarterly data on intergovernmental lending (IGL). The share of IGL as a percentage of GDP at the end of Q4 2021 accounted for 1.8 per cent in the euro area, and 1.6 per cent in the EU.