OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2010. Eurostat, the statistics agency of the European Union, confirmed the Estonian government deficit in 2009 at 1.7 percent of gross domestic product, which matches the figure supplied by Statistics Estonia.

The EU27 government deficit was 6.8 percent and the euro area deficit, 6.3 percent of GDP. Latvia and Lithuania recorded deficits of 9 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively.

Both the national statistics office and Eurostat put Estonia's government debt in 2009 at 7.2 percent of GDP which Eurostat said was the lowest across the 27-nation bloc.

The debt level of EU countries averaged 73.6 percent and that of the euro area, 78.7 percent of GDP. The Latvian government debt ratio was 36.1 percent and the Lithuanian, 29.3 percent.