Compared with the second quarter of 2011, fourteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2011, and thirteen a decrease. The largest decreases were in Italy and Malta -1.66 percentage points.
Today, Eurostat publishes for the first time a News Release with quarterly data on government debt. This new euroindicator complements the annual data already published in the twice yearly EDP notifications by providing a more short term trend in government debt for the euro area and the EU as well as for the Member States. This new quarterly euro-indicator will be issued around four months after the end of the quarter of reference.
Annual EDP data notified by Member States in April and October are the subject of a thorough verification by Eurostat, which can lead to a revision of past quarterly data.
At the end of the third quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA17) stood at 87.4%, down compared with 87.7% at the end of the second quarter of 2011. In the EU274 the ratio increased from 81.7% to 82.2%. Compared with the third quarter of 2010, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 83.2% to 87.4%) and the EU27 (from 78.5% to 82.2%).
At the end of the third quarter of 2011, securities other than shares accounted for 79.3% of euro area and 79.7% of EU27 general government debt. Loans made up 18.0% 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) is also published. The share of IGL in GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2011 is similar for both the euro area and the EU27, amounting to 0.8% and 0.6% of GDP respectively.
Government debt at the end of the third quarter 2011 by Member State
The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2011 were recorded in Greece (159.1%), Italy (119.6%), Portugal (110.1%) and Ireland (104.9%), and the lowest in Estonia (6.1%), Bulgaria (15.0%) and Luxembourg (18.5%).
Compared with the second quarter of 2011, fourteen Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2011, and thirteen a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Hungary (+4.8 percentage points – pp), Greece (+4.4 pp) and Portugal (+3.6 pp), and the largest decreases in Italy and Malta (both -1.6 pp) and Romania (-1.0 pp). It should be noted that the change in debt ratio between two successive quarters can be influenced by seasonal patterns.
Compared with the third quarter of 2010, twenty Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2011, and seven a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Greece (+20.3 pp), Portugal (+18.9 pp) and Ireland (+16.5 pp), and the largest decreases in Sweden (-1.6 pp), Luxembourg (-1.4 pp) and Bulgaria (-0.9 pp).
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