Main information
- The public debt of the euro zone reached 88 percent of GDP in the first quarter of 2025, a slight increase compared to the previous quarter.
- The debt title constitutes a large part of the total debt in the euro zone and the EU.
- Greece, Italy, France, Belgium and Spain display the highest debt/GDP ratios among EU member states.
The public debt of the euro zone reached 88 percent of GDP during the first quarter of 2025. This is a slight increase compared to the end of 2024 (87.4 %). A similar trend was observed in the EU, where the ratio increased from 81 percent to 81.8 percent. This reports Eurostat.
Composition of public debt
If we compare the first quarter of 2025 to the same period in 2024, both the euro zone and the EU experienced an increase in their debt/GDP ratio.
The composition of public debt has remained generally stable in the euro zone and the EU. The debt title represented a large part (84.2 percent in the euro zone and 83.6 percent in the EU), followed by loans (respectively 13.3 percent and 13.9 percent) and liquidity and deposits (respectively 2.6 percent and 2.5 percent).
Top five EU countries with the highest debt rate
The quarterly data on intergovernmental loans (IGL) is published to highlight the participation of the Governments of the EU member states in loans granted to other Member States.
The lig as a percentage of GDP amounted to 1.4 percent in the euro zone and 1.2 percent in the EU at the end of the first quarter of 2025.
Greece (152.5 percent), Italy (137.9 percent), France (114.1 percent), Belgium (106.8 percent) and Spain (103.5 percent) recorded the highest debt/GDP ratios among the EU member states in the first quarter 2025. Conversely, Bulgaria (23.9 percent), Estonia (24.1 One hundred), Luxembourg (26.1 percent) and Denmark (29.9 percent) display the weakest ratios.
Debts increased in sixteen EU countries in the first quarter of 2025
By comparing the first quarter of 2025 in the previous quarter, sixteen Member States experienced an increase in their debt/GDP ratio, while ten recorded a decrease and Tchèquie remained stable.
Austria and Slovakia are in the lead with the most important increases (+3.5 percentage points each), followed by Slovenia (+2.9 pp), Italy (+2.5 pp), Lithuania (+2.4 pp), Poland (+2.2 pp), and Belgium (+2.1 pp). Ireland (-3.7 pp), Latvia (-1.2 pp) and Greece (-1.1 pp) recorded the most important declines.
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, thirteen Member States experienced an increase in their debt/GDP ratio, while twelve have recorded a decrease. Slovenia and Estonia remained stable.
Poland (+6.1 pp), Finland (+5.1 pp), Austria and Romania (+4.1 pp each), France (+3.6 pp), Italy (+2.9 pp), Slovakia (+2.6 pp), and Sweden (+2.0 pp) experienced the highest increases. Greece (-9.3 pp), Cyprus (-8.2 pp), Ireland (-6.1 pp), Croatia (-3.6 pp), Denmark (-3.2 pp), Spain (-2.8 pp) and Portugal (-2.7 pp) recorded the most important reductions.
(ns)
