LISBON: Portugal clocked up a 9.3 percent budget deficit in the final quarter of last year, the worst record both in the Euro Zone and the European Union, Eurostat reported. As a whole, Eurostat reported that the Euro Zone had registered a 2.3 percent deficit in terms of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2015, against 2.8 percent year-on-year and 1.8 percent in the third quarter.
Portugal’s deficit was not only the worst in the Euro Zone but also outstripped all other member states in the European Union with the 9.3 percent figure inflated by state liabilities taken on from the financial sector, up from 1.7 percent in the third quarter and 2.5 percent year-on-year.
The 28-member state European Union saw an average state deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP in the last quarter of 2015, down from 3.0 percent in annualised terms but up from the 2.2 percent recorded between July and September 2015.
Portugal was ahead of the United Kingdom, with a 4.0 percent deficit and Slovakia, on 3.1 percent, in terms of its state overspend whilst five members turned in budgetary surpluses, with Sweden gathering 0.6 percent of GDP more than it spent ahead of Estonia, 0.5 percent, the Czech Republic, 0.2 percent and German and Lithuania, 0.1 percent apiece.
