The EU’s government debt to GDP ratio was 85.9% after the first quarter, the bloc’s statistical arm Eurostat said in a report. At the end of 2012, the EU27 debt was 83.3% of GDP.
At the end of the first quarter of 2013, securities other than shares accounted for 79.0% of EU27 general government debt. Loans made up 15.9% of government debt. Currency and deposits represented 2 3.6% of EU27 government debt.
The highest ratios of government debt to GDP in the first quarter were recorded in Greece (160.5%), Italy (130.3%) and Portugal (127.2%), and the lowest in Estonia (10.0%), Bulgaria (18.0%), Luxembourg (22.4%) and Romania.
Compared with the first quarter of 2012, twenty-four member states registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of March 2013, and three a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Greece (+24.1 pp), Ireland (+18.3 pp) and Spain (+15.2 pp), while the decreases were recorded in Latvia (-5.1 pp), Lithuania (-1.9 pp) and Denmark (-0.2 pp).