Romania, among the countries with the lowest public debt: 35% of GDP 9 months in 2018

By Jerom Bolt
Romania continues to be one of the countries with the lowest public debt in the European Union, according to data released by the Public Finance Ministry (MFP). The public debt reflects the spending, with good results, of the money the state had at its disposal.
According to the methodology Eurostat, the public debt represents the debt of a State, that is, the total of loans contracted by the State. Public debt should not be confused with the public deficit, which represents the negative annual balance between revenue and expenditure.
The public administration’s debt slightly decreased in the first nine months of 2018 reaching 35% of the gross domestic product (GDP), at the end of September 2018. In terms of value the gov’t debt grew to 313.42 billion lei, at the end of September 2018, from 301.158 billion lei in December 2017.
According to Eurostat statistical data we consulted, the public debt at the end of September was lower than that of December 2017 (35.1%), but higher than at the end of the first quarter of 2018 (34.1%) and the second quarter 2018 (34.5%).
In the first half of 2018, Romania ranks third, after Estonia (8.3%) and Bulgaria (23.8%) with the lowest public data in GDP.
In Europe there are some champion states on the continent and in the world with excessive public debt. Among the 17 countries in the world that had the largest public debt in 2017 were Greece (181.9% of GDP), Italy (131.4%), Portugal (125.6%), Belgium (103, 2%).
A great part of the public debt of Romania, over 304.37 bln lei respectively, is the medium and long-term debt. The gov’t securities are worth rd 255.52 bln lei.
By currency, 156.62 bln lei is the lei-denominated debt, 127.57 bln lei is the euro-denominated debt and 27.94 bln is the USD-denominated debt.
Out of the total gov’t debt, the central public administration debt is 298.97 bln lei, while the local administration’s debt is 14.45 bln lei.
In the past four years, the public administration debt of Romania has constantly dipped as percentage of the GDP, from 39.2% in 2014, to 35% of GDP 9 months in 2018.