At the end of the first quarter of 2013, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area (EA17) stood at 92.2%, compared with 90.6% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012. In the EU27 the ratio increased from 85.2% to 85.9%. Compared with the first quarter of 2012, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area (from 88.2% to 92.2%) and the EU27 (from 83.3% to 85.9%).
At the end of the first quarter of 2013, securities other than shares accounted for 77.1% of euro area and for 79.0% of EU27 general government debt. Loans made up 18.4% and 15.9% respectively of government debt. Currency and deposits represented 2.7% of euro area and 3.6% 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 first quarter of 2013 amounted to 2.1% for the euro area and to 1.6% for the EU27.
Government debt at the end of the first quarter of 2013 by Member State
The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2013 were recorded in Greece (160.5%), Italy (130.3%), Portugal (127.2%) and Ireland (125.1%), and the lowest in Estonia (10.0%), Bulgaria (18.0%) and Luxembourg (22.4%).
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2012, twenty-one Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2013, and six a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Ireland (+7.7 percentage points - pp), Belgium (+4.7 pp) and Spain (+4.0 pp), and the largest decreases in Latvia (-1.5 pp), Denmark (-0.8 pp) and Germany (-0.7 pp).
Compared with the first quarter of 2012, twenty-four Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2013, and three a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Greece (+24.1 pp), Ireland (+18.3 pp), Spain (+15.2 pp), Portugal (+14.9 pp) and Cyprus (+12.6 pp), while the decreases were recorded in Latvia (-5.1 pp), Lithuania (-1.9 pp) and Denmark (-0.2 pp).