EU debt rules to remain at least partially suspended in 2023

European debt rules will remain at least partially suspended next year. The Vice President of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, said yesterday that the so-called twentieths rule for highly indebted countries should not be applied in 2023 either. According to this rule, euro countries with a debt ratio of over 60 percent must reduce their debt by one-twentieth of the difference between 60 percent and the actual ratio every year. This would hit Greece and Italy particularly hard, which have the highest debt levels. Around the globe, debt has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 crisis, so reducing it by one-twentieth is also increasingly challenging.