Italy, Greece debt rose in 2018, bucking eurozone trend

Public debt in Greece and Italy, the two most indebted countries of the eurozone, grew last year while the bloc as a whole recorded an overall decrease in its liabilities, the European Union statistics office said on Tuesday.

The widening gaps in Greece and Italy, although expected, are seen as stretching EU fiscal rules that require countries with high debts to gradually bring them down.

The overall debt in the 19-country currency bloc fell to 85.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year from 87.1 percent in 2017, Eurostat said. The bloc's aggregated budget deficit also dropped to 0.5 percent of GDP from 1.0 percent in 2017.
The fall coincided with Germany's reduction of its debt to 60.9 percent of GDP from 64.5 percent. The bloc' largest economy also widened its public surplus to 1.7 percent of output from 1.0 percent in 2017. But in Greece, the debt...