Eurozone public debt has risen to 88% of GDP

According to Eurostat, total gross public debt of euro area countries (EA20) reached 88.0% of GDP in the first quarter of 2025, up from 87.4% in the previous quarter and 87.8% a year earlier. On a European Union-wide basis, the figure also rose, from 81.0% to 81.8%.

In monetary terms, this means that the combined debt of eurozone countries reached 13.48 trillion euros and that of EU countries reached 14.82 trillion euros.

The debt structure shows the predominance of debt securities, which account for 84.2 per cent in the euro area and 83.6 per cent in the EU. The rest is loans (13.3% in the euro area, 13.9% in the EU) and deposits and cash (2.6% and 2.5% respectively). Interestingly, the level of intergovernmental lending in the euro area was 1.4 per cent of GDP.

Greece remained the absolute leader in terms of the share of government debt to GDP - 152.5%, followed by Italy (137.9%), France (114.1%), Belgium (106.8%) and Spain (103.5%). At the opposite end of the list are Bulgaria (23.9%), Estonia (24.1%), Luxembourg (26.1%) and Denmark (29.9%).

It is interesting to note that in Luxembourg, despite the overall increase in debt in the EU, debt levels have fallen by 0.2 percentage points compared to the end of 2024.

The highest quarterly debt growth was shown by Austria and Slovakia - +3.5 p.p., Slovenia - +2.9 p.p., Italy - +2.5 p.p.. Over the year, the record-breaker was Poland with 6.1 p.p. growth, followed by Finland (+5.1 p.p.) and Austria and Romania (+4.1 p.p.).

At the same time, some countries managed to reduce their debt burden: Greece (-9.3 p.p.), Cyprus (-8.2 p.p.), Ireland (-6.1 p.p.), Croatia, Denmark and Spain also recorded notable reductions.

Debt growth is attributed to a combination of factors: government spending to support the economy, investments in energy transformation, and structural deficits. At the same time, in the context of the Maastricht sustainability criteria (which set a limit of 60 per cent of GDP), many countries continue to fall far short of the recommended values, potentially increasing fiscal pressure from the European Commission.

This data becomes particularly significant against the backdrop of current economic challenges, from the energy transition to the effects of inflation and geopolitical instability, requiring additional fiscal manoeuvres and sustainable debt management from EU countries.