Government debt up to 88.7% of GDP in euro area

At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the general government gross debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA20) stood at 88.7%, compared with 88.2% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. In the EU, the ratio also increased from 81.5% to 82.0%.
Compared with the first quarter of 2023, the government debt to GDP ratio decreased in both the euro area (from 90.1% to 88.7%) and the EU (from 83.0% to 82.0%).

At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the general government debt was made up of 83.9% debt securities in the euro area and 83.4% in the EU, 13.6% loans in the euro area and 14.0% in the EU and 2.6% currency and deposits both in the euro area and in the EU.

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 first quarter of 2024 stood at 1.4% in the euro area and at 1.2% in the EU.

These data are released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.