door Emmanuel Vanbrussel
published on Sunday, September 10, 2023 at 3:55 PM •
3 min read
How do we get Belgian public finances back in order? This issue will hopefully be addressed during the campaign for the 2024 elections, because a report from the KBC study service confirms that Belgium will hit the wall if policy remains unchanged.
Why is this important?
The Belgian national debt is flirting with the 600 billion euro mark and the debt ratio is expected to reach 106 percent of GDP this year, one of the highest figures in Europe. But even more worrying: without intervention, Belgium will become the EU country with the strongest increase in the debt ratio between 2022 and 2028, KBC economist Johan Van Gompel warns.
In the news: Yet another alarm about the poor government finances. The KBC study service calculated on the basis of IMF data that nowhere in the EU will the debt ratio rise as quickly as in Belgium. If policy remains unchanged, Belgium is heading for a debt ratio of almost 120 percent of GDP in 2028, while the EU average is just heading for a decline to more than 80 percent.
Explained: Appearances are deceiving. After the peak in 2020, the Belgian debt ratio went lower in 2021 and 2022,
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2023-09-10 15:59:23
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