EU government debt increases to 88% of GDP in Q1

At the end of the first quarter of 2014, the government debt to GDP ratio in 28-member European Union (EU) was recorded at 88.0 percent, compared with 87.2 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013, reported Eurostat on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the ratio increased from 92.7 percent to 93.9 percent in the 18-state eurozone, the EU statistical office said.
Compared with the first quarter of 2013, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the eurozone (from 92.5 percent to 93.9 percent) and the EU (from 86.2 percent to 88.0 percent).
At the end of the first quarter of 2014, the highest ratios of government debt to GDP in EU were recorded in Greece, at 174.1 percent, followed by Italy at 135.6 percent and Portugal at 132.9 percent. The lowest was recorded in Estonia at 10.0 percent, Bulgaria at 20.3 percent and Luxembourg at 22.8 percent.