Eurostat the EU Statistics Office last week published the official data relating to the budget deficits and public debt for 2004 in the 25 member states of the Union. If the deficit of the Euro zone (2.7% of GDP) and of the 25-member EU (2.6% of GDP) was significantly reduced in 2004 in comparison with the previous year, the rate of public debt on the contrary registered a further growth, rising to 70.8% for the Euro zone and 63.4% for the 25-member EU. The member states with the highest budget deficits are Greece (6.6%), Hungary (5.4%), Malta (5.1%) and Cyprus (4.4%). Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Slovakia, UK, Czech Republic and Portugal have levels of deficit ranging between 3.9% and 3.0%, while only Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden, Holland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Spain and Belgium (0.0%) are below the 3% threshold fixed by the Stability Pact. As regards public debt, 8 member states present a percentage higher than the 60% fixed at Maastricht: Austria, France, Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Belgium, Italy (106.5%) and Greece (109.3%).
