Ireland’s deficit reduced
Europe-wide, the Maastricht Returns show that the euro zone’s fiscal deficit fell sharply last year as governments slashed expenses and raised taxes to regain market confidence in their public finances, but public debt still climbed.
Eurostat said the aggregate budget deficit in the 17 country euro zone fell to 4.1% of gross domestic product in 2011 from 6.2% in 2010 - the first year of the sovereign debt crisis.
every cause has an effect :
Euro zone public debt, however, rose to 87.3% of GDP in 2011 from 85.4%, Eurostat said.
if you’re likely to believe deficit cutting is the path to economic health, ignore the stat above, and enjoy the one below:
Portugal, already on a euro zone financial lifeline after being cut off from market borrowing, more than halved its budget deficit last year to 4.4% of GDP from 9.8% as a result of reforms,
oh..and ignore this one:
but its debt jumped to 108.1% from 93.5%.
the silver lining:
The figures also show that Ireland’s underlying deficit fell by 1.6 percentage points to 9.1% of GDP last year, well below the EU-IMF programme limit of 10.6%.