The top budget deficits were registered in Hungary at 5 percent, Greece 3.5 percent, United Kingdom 2.8 percent, France 2.7 percent, and Portugal and Romania, each with 2.6 percent. Of the 15 states that are part of the euro zone, only Greece broke the 3 percent public deficit limit allowed by the EU.
At the opposite end, 12 states posted budget surpluses last year, with the highest in Finland (5.3 percent), Denmark (4.9 percent), Sweden (3.6 percent), Cyprus (3.5 percent) and Estonia (2.7 percent).
One the whole, both the EU and the euro zone registered lower budget deficits in 2007 than the year before. In the EU, the combined public deficit dropped to 0.9 percent in 2006 from 1.4 percent in 2006, while that in the euro zone eased to 0.6 percent from 1.3 percent in 2006.
The Romanian government is targeting a 2008 budget deficit below that of last year, at 2.3 percent of GDP. However, financial analysts believe this is unlikely.
