The public debt of the 21 nations using the euro currency rose to 88.8% of their combined output in the April-June period from 87.3% a year earlier, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat reported on Wednesday. Italy’s debt ratio has now fallen to less than one percentage point above Greece and France’s debt has risen to 119.1% with borrowing costs exceeding 5%. The debt-to-GDP ratio is the amount governments owe compared with the size of their economy. EU guidelines say debt should not be more than 60% of GDP and yearly budget deficits should not be more than 3%.
In the wider EU government debt grew to 82.9% of GDP in the second quarter from 81.4% a year earlier. Cash terms, eurozone governments owe some €14.4 trillion. Published separately on Wednesday, full-year data showed EU debt increased to 81.5% of GDP in 2025 from 80.3% in 2024 and the bloc’s budget deficit was stuck at 3.1%, barely above the EU’s 3% ceiling. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, EU debt has remained above 80% of GDP, hitting a high of 89.5% in 2020.
The 20 countries using the euro last year are still the ones in Eurostat’s main annual data for the eurozone, as Bulgaria joined on 1 January 2026. Their debt climbed to 87.7% of GDP from 86.6%. Eurostat also raised concerns about Bulgaria’s 2025 figures, detailing how it reports spending by its road infrastructure agency. Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, saw its debt ratio jump to 62.8% from 61.4% as its deficit swelled to 2.9%.
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