Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper): The government debt of Belgium tops €500 billion with EU fretting over budget deficits and total debt. The new government will find a way to reduce at least €28 billion of spending within a period of 4-7 years.
At the end of July the debt the government of Belgium was in amounted to about €496.259 bln. Throughout the past months this debt has not budged from the €500 billion mark it did spill below that this April and May before crossing again in June. There is trouble between Belgium and the EU because of her extravagant spending habits. The reason the EU is unhappy is that the country’s annual budget deficit and overall debt exceed the ceiling set by the bloc’s rules.
How Will Belgium’s New Government Tackle Its €28 Billion Budget Cut?
Belgium’s new governments lies the many task to save some €28 billion within either four or seven years. They do so through cutting expenses or alternatively coming up with a scheme as to how more money could flow into government coffers. They are going to have to draft a plan of how the money is to be spent over five years in Belgium. They need to decide how this spending has to be divided between regional and community parliaments. They are supposed to forward it to the European Commission by 20th September.
Belgium’s total federal debt amounted to €521.868 billion as of the end of July including investments and securities. This was an increase of €258.31 million from June. On average government debt of Belgium will take around 10.80 years to mature which is a bit longer than previous maturity durations. The current interest rate pegged for any loan acquired by such countries is now at 1.93%. The refinancing risk on this kind of loan is said to be 13.87% in 12 months time while it goes up to 38.04% thereafter within five years’ span.
