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Changes in the fiscal policy of EU states after the 2008 crisis

Witold Wiliński
Witold Wiliński
   | Aug 20, 2019
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Article Category: Research Article
Published Online: Aug 20, 2019
Page range: 52 - 65
Received: Sep 27, 2018
Accepted: Dec 01, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijme-2019-0004
© 2019 Witold Wiliński, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Figure 1

Indebtedness level (%) in relation to GDP in 2015 and GDP change in 2008–2015 in EU states.Source: Own calculation based on Eurostat data [http://ec.europa.eu/Eurostat,access18/06/2018].
Indebtedness level (%) in relation to GDP in 2015 and GDP change in 2008–2015 in EU states.Source: Own calculation based on Eurostat data [http://ec.europa.eu/Eurostat,access18/06/2018].

Figure 2

Budget expenditures (%) in relation to GDP in 2015 and GDP change in 2008-2015 in EU states.Source: Own calculation based on Eurostat data [http://ec.europa.eu/Eurostat,access18/06/2018].
Budget expenditures (%) in relation to GDP in 2015 and GDP change in 2008-2015 in EU states.Source: Own calculation based on Eurostat data [http://ec.europa.eu/Eurostat,access18/06/2018].

Income of indirect taxes as a percentage of governmental budget income in EU countries (data for 2015 in %) and changes in VAT rates in 2008–2015

CountryIndirect taxes as a % of governmental budget incomeVAT as a % of governmental incomeVAT rates before changesVAT rates in 2016Δ
Bulgaria54.033.020.020.00.0
Croatia52.035.023.025.02.0
Hungary49.023.025.027.02.0
Sweden49.020.025.025.00.0
Romania47.030.019.020.01.0
Cyprus44.024.017.019.02.0
Latvia43.026.021.021.00.0
Lithuania42.028.019.021.02.0
Estonia42.026.018.020.02.0
Slovenia40.023.020.022.02.0
Poland39.021.022.023.01.0
Malta39.023.018.018.00.0
Portugal37.022.020.023.03.0
Czech Republic37.021.019.021.02.0
UK37.020.015.020.05.0
Greece36.019.021.023.02.0
Ireland36.019.021.523.01.5
Denmark35.020.025.025.00.0
Slovakia35.021.019.020.01.0
Italy34.013.021.022.01.0
Finland33.021.022.024.02.0
Spain33.018.018.021.03.0
Austria33.018.020.020.00.0
France33.014.019.620.00.4
Luxemburg33.019.015.017.02.0
Netherlands31.018.019.021.02.0
Belgium28.014.021.021.00.0
Germany28.018.019.019.00.0

Indebtedness level as a percentage of GDP in OECD countries (data for 2008 and 2014)

Country20082014(%)
Old EU member states
Luxembourg18.027.352
Sweden41.848.115
Denmark32.349.453
Germany41.853.528
Finland32.559.985
Netherland53.872.935
Austria68.192.636
France64.798.051
Spain37.1102.4176
United Kingdom55.4108.095
Belgium90.3112.024
Ireland46.7122.4162
Italy103.1146.742
Portugal80.2150.287
Greece126.1181.644
Average value59.595.066
New EU member states
Estonia5.110.196
Latvia25.943.869
Czech Republic30.552.070
Poland50.253.06
Slovakia32.858.077
Slovenia26.794.0253
Hungary71.197.737
Average value34.658.487
OECD countries (no EU members)
Norway43.518.0−59
Turkey**54.040.6−25
Australia22.144.8103
Canada42.447.512
Mexico44.049.913
Israel103.492.9−10
United States64.097.152
Iceland***85.7103.220
Japan147.3207.441
Average value67.477.916

State aid in EU granted for enterprises in 2009-2012 (in billion EUR)

Aid approvedAid realized
EU-2782.936.4
Germany29.617.7
Austria10.21.8
UK10.10.6
Hungary9.70.3
Belgium8.10.8
Greece40.6
Spain2.50.7
Slovenia1.31.5
Sweden1.31.1
Czech Republic1.10.4
Portugal0.80.8
Latvia0.60.2
France0.66.2
Luxemburg0.50.6
Finland0.50.9
Romania0.40.4
Slovakia0.40
Italy0.41
Ireland0.40.4
Poland0.20
Estonia0.20
Lithuania0.10
Malta00
Bulgaria00
Denmark00.2
Netherlands00.1
Cyprus00

The situation of member states in the context of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure in 2017 (EU Commission opinion from March 2018)

Procedure categoryMember states
Lack of economic imbalanceAustria, Belgium, Denmark. Estonia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Czech
Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, United Kingdom, Finland, Slovenia
Economic imbalanceSpain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria, France, Portugal
Excessive economic imbalanceCroatia, Cyprus, Italy

Changes in VAT, PIT, and CIT rates in 2008–2015 (data for EU member states)

CountryVATPITCIT
Austria−−−
Belgium−−−
Bulgaria−−−
Croatia↗↘−
Cyprus↗↗↗
Czech Rep.↗↗↘
Denmark−↘↘
Estonia↗↘↘
Finland↗↗↘
France↗↗↗
Germany−−−
Greece↗↗↘
Hungary↗↘↘
Ireland↗↗−
Italy↗↗−
Latvia−↘−
Lithuania↗↘−
Luxemburg↗↗↘
Malta−−−
Netherlands↗−↘
Poland↗↘−
Portugal↗↗↗
Romania↗−
Slovakia↗↗↗
Slovenia↗↗↘
Spain↗↗↘
Sweden−↗↘
UK↗↗↘

Indebtedness level and government expenditures in relation to GDP in 2015 year and GDP change in 2008-2015 (data for EU member states in percentage)

CountryDebt-to-GDP ratio in 2015Government expenditures as GDP percentageGDP changes in 2008–2015
Estonia9.739.5−0.3
Luxemburg21.441.514.0
Bulgaria26.740.211.4
Latvia36.437.2−3.8
Romania38.435.512.6
Denmark40.255.7−1.0
Czech Rep.41.142.68.1
Lithuania42.735.18.0
Sweden43.450.410.5
Poland51.341.525.4
Slovakia52.945.617.6
Finland63.158.3−4.7
Malta63.943.323.2
Netherlands65.145.13.1
Germany71.243.97.6
Hungary75.350.74.3
Slovenia83.248.0−1.1
Austria86.251.74.8
Croatia86.746.9−9.5
United Kingdom89.243.07.0
Ireland93.835.127.8
France95.856.84.1
Spain99.243.3−3.5
Belgium106.053.95.8
Cyprus108.940.1−5.3
Portugal129.048.3−5.3
Italy132.750.5−8.0
Greece176.955.3−29.5

CIT and VAT rates in EU countries (data for 2016 in %)

CountryCITPIT
SMEOthersMaximum valueMinimum value
New EU member states
Bulgaria101010
Lithuania5151515
Latvia9152323
Cyprus12.53520
Romania161616
Slovenia175016
Czech Republic192215
Poland193218
Croatia204012
Estonia202020
Hungary1620.61616
Slovakia222519
Malta353515
Average18.526.116.5
Median192316
Old EU member states
Ireland12.54820
Finland2051.66.5
U.K.204520
Sweden225720
Denmark23.555.88
Austria255036.5
Netherlands255236.5
Spain25284619.5
Greece294822
Luxemburg29.243.60
Portugal1729.556.514.5
Germany30.250.514
Italy31.448.923
Belgium3453.825
France153850.314
Average26.550.518.6
Median2850.320
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