Reported by the Consejeros Editorial Team
The Eurozone’s public deficit at the end of the first quarter fell by one tenth of a percentage point compared with the last three months of the previous year, to 3.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), whilst public debt rose by 1.2 percentage points, reaching 88.9 per cent, according to figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU).
As for the figures for the European Union (EU) as a whole, the public deficit also fell to 3.1%, three tenths of a percentage point below the fourth quarter of 2025, and public debt rose from 81.8% to 82.9%.
In the first quarter of 2026, total public revenue in the eurozone accounted for 47.1 per cent of GDP. The decline from the 47.3 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025 was mainly due to the fact that “the rise in nominal GDP offset the slight increase – of around €1 billion – in total public revenue, seasonally adjusted in absolute terms”.
Total public expenditure in the euro area stood at 50.2% of GDP, representing a decrease compared with the previous quarter (50.4% of GDP) driven “both by the fall in seasonally adjusted total public expenditure (by around €1 billion) and by the rise in nominal GDP”.
In the EU, total public revenue stood at 46.6 per cent of GDP in the first quarter, marking a decline in the ratio from 46.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025. Seasonally adjusted total revenue in the EU rose by around €9 billion compared with three months earlier. Total public expenditure in the EU accounted for 49.8 per cent of GDP, down from 50.1 per cent of GDP recorded in the previous quarter. Seasonally adjusted total expenditure fell by around €2 billion compared with the previous period.
