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