Third quarter of 2012 compared with second quarter of 2012 Euro area and EU27 government debt nearly stable at 90.0% and 85.1% of GDP respectively

Reference: STAT/13/12 Event Date: 23/01/2013

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STAT/13/12

23 January 2013

Third quarter of 2012 compared with second quarter of 2012
Euro area and EU27 government debt nearly stable at 90.0% and 85.1% of GDP respectively

At the end of the third quarter of 2012, the government debt1 to GDP ratio2 in the euro area3 (EA17) stood at 90.0%, compared with 89.9% at the end of the second quarter of 2012. In the EU273 the ratio was 85.1%, compared with 85.0%. Compared with the third quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 86.8% to 90.0%) and the EU27 (from 81.5% to 85.1%). These data are released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

At the end of the third quarter of 2012, securities other than shares accounted for 78.9% of euro area and for 80.4% of EU27 general government debt. Loans made up 18.3% of euro area and 15.8% of EU27 government debt. Currency and deposits represented 2.8% of euro area and 3.8% of EU27 government debt.

Due to the involvement of EU governments in financial assistance to certain Member States, and in order to obtain a more complete picture of the evolution of government debt, quarterly data on intergovernmental lending (IGL)4 are also published. The share of IGL in GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2012 amounts to 1.7% for the euro area and to 1.3% for EU27.

Government debt at the end of the third quarter 2012 by Member State

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2012 were recorded in Greece (152.6%), Italy (127.3%), Portugal (120.3%) and Ireland (117.0%), and the lowest in Estonia (9.6%), Bulgaria (18.7%) and Luxembourg (20.9%).

Compared with the second quarter of 2012, fifteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2012, eleven a decrease and one Member State registered no change. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (+5.9 percentage points - pp), Greece (+3.4 pp) and Portugal (+2.9 pp), and the largest decreases in Latvia (-2.6 pp), Malta (-2.5 pp) and Austria (-1.3 pp).

Compared with the third quarter of 2011, twenty-two Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2012, and five a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Cyprus (+17.5 pp), Ireland (+13.4 pp) and Spain (+10.7 pp), and the largest decreases in Greece (-11.1 pp), Hungary (-4.8 pp) and Latvia (-3.6 pp).

1. Quarterly data on government debt are collected from the Member States according to Council Regulation (EC) No 1222/2004 and refer to the Maastricht debt definition. The general government debt is defined as the consolidated gross debt of the whole of the general government sector outstanding at the end of the quarter (at nominal value). General government debt consists of liabilities of general government in the following categories: currency and deposits (AF.2); securities other than shares, excluding financial derivatives (AF.33) and loans (AF.4), as defined in ESA95.

Quarterly data on government debt by Member State are published in the Eurostat database:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/data/database.

1. The debt to GDP ratio is calculated for each quarter using the sum of GDP for the four last quarters. Data on GDP are the most recent transmitted by the EU Member States.

2. The euro area (EA17) includes Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

3. For the purpose of proper consolidation of general government debt and to provide users with information, Eurostat publishes data on government loans to other EU governments and these loans have been deducted from EA17 and EU27 debt. The concepts and definitions are based on the European system of national and regional accounts (ESA 95 - Council Regulation No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996) and on the rules relating to the statistics for the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP). The data covered is stocks of loans related to claims on other EU Member States. The valuation basis is the stock of loans at nominal value outstanding at end of each quarter. For the first quarter of 2011 onwards, the intergovernmental lending figures relate mainly to lending to Greece, Ireland and Portugal and include loans made by the European Financial Stability Facility (see Eurostat decision regarding EFSF http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/2-27012011-AP/EN/2-27012011-AP-EN.PDF).

Further data are available in the integrated publication on quarterly government finance statistics:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/data

Selected Principal European Economic Indicators: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/euroindicators

Government debt by Member State

* Securities other than shares, excluding financial derivatives.