At the end of the second quarter of 2023, the general government gross debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA20) stood at 90.3%, compared with 90.7% at the end of the first quarter of 2023. In the EU, the ratio also decreased from 83.4% to 83.1%. For both the euro area and the EU, the decrease in government debt to GDP ratio is due to the fact that, an increase in GDP in absolute terms outweighed the increase in government debt. Compared with the second quarter of 2022, the government debt to GDP ratio also decreased in both the euro area (from 93.5% to 90.3%) and the EU (from 85.9% to 83.1%), Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union said.
At the end of the second quarter of 2023, debt securities accounted for 83.4% of euro area and for 82.9% of EU general government debt. Loans made up 13.8% and 14.3% respectively and currency and deposits represented 2.8% of euro area and 2.7% of EU government debt. Due to the involvement of EU Member States' governments in lending to certain Member States, quarterly data on intergovernmental lending (IGL) are also published. The IGL as percentage of GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2023 stood at 1.6% in the euro area and for 1.3% in the EU.
Government debt at the end of the second quarter 2023 by Member State
The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2023 were recorded in Greece (166.5%), Italy (142.4%), France (111.9%), Spain (111.2%), Portugal (110.1%) and Belgium (106.0%), and the lowest in Estonia (18.5%), Bulgaria (21.5%), Luxembourg (28.2%), Denmark (30.2%) and Sweden (30.7%).
Compared with the first quarter of 2023, nine Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2023 and eighteen a decrease. The largest increases in the ratio were observed in Cyprus (+2.2 percentage points – pp), Slovakia (+1.6 pp), Italy (+1.5 pp), Finland and Estonia (both +1.3 pp), while the largest decreases were recorded in Latvia (-3.5 pp), Croatia (-2.6 pp), Portugal (-2.2 pp), Greece (-2.1 pp), Malta (-1.7 pp), Austria (-1.6 pp), Slovenia (-1.5 pp), the Netherlands (-1.4 pp), Germany (-1.1 pp) and Sweden (-1.0 pp).
Compared with the second quarter of 2022, six Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the second quarter of 2023 and twenty-one Member States a decrease. Increases in the ratio were recorded in Luxembourg (+2.9 pp), Finland (+2.1 pp), Estonia (+1.6 pp), Czechia (+0.8 pp), Slovakia (+0.4 pp) and Bulgaria (+0.2 pp), while the largest decreases were observed in Greece (-16.6 pp), Portugal (-11.8 pp), Cyprus (-8.1 pp), Ireland (-7.4 pp), Croatia (-6.0 pp), Slovenia (-4.5 pp), Austria and Italy (both -4.0 pp), Spain (-3.3 pp) and the Netherlands (-3.1 pp).
