Home > The Economy > Chart of the day: Debt to GDP ratios for EU countries

Chart of the day: Debt to GDP ratios for EU countries

July 14, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

 

Source: Eurostat

Categories: The Economy
  1. D.J.Skinner
    July 14, 2011 at 8:17 am | #1
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    Is the debt just Public Debt or does it include Private plus Business plus corporate debt?
    If it is just Public i.e. government debt, does this include Federal plus Provincial plus municipal debt?
    If it is just Federal does this include future liabilities or is it straight unfunded debt?

    I assume you apply the same criteria to all the countries listed but it would be helpful if you will define “debt”

  2. merijnknibbe
    July 14, 2011 at 8:54 am | #2
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    Mr. Skinner,

    Eurostat defines debt as (see below). The AF.34 thing mentioned in this definition enabled the previous government of Greece to ‘hide’ part of the debt, for a time:

    “General government gross debt

    General government gross debt is defined in the Maastricht Treaty as consolidated general government gross debt at nominal value, outstanding at the end of the year in the following categories of government liabilities (as defined in ESA95): currency and deposits (AF.2), securities other than shares excluding financial derivatives (AF.3, excluding AF.34), and loans (AF.4). The general government sector comprises the sub-sectors of central government, state government, local government and social security funds. The series are presented as a percentage of GDP and in millions of euro. GDP used as a denominator is the gross domestic product at current market prices. Data expressed in national currency are converted into euro using end-year exchange rates provided by the European Central Bank.”

  3. Stephan
    July 14, 2011 at 3:55 pm | #3
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    Huch … The EU must send strongly worded letters to all EU members. Everybody is in violation of the Maastricht Treaty. Then member states can unanimous vote that each violating nation must shoot itself in the foot.

  4. Lucy Honeychurch
    July 14, 2011 at 7:19 pm | #4
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    Can anyone overlay the US position on this chart?

  5. Guilherme da Fonseca-Statter
    July 21, 2011 at 6:46 pm | #5
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    Not a word (or a comment) on the trillions (millions of millions…) of euros (or pounds or dollars…) that have taken refuge in the multitude of tax havens… In the case of France, only a couple (literally «four») of the big CAC40 enterprises have paid any taxes to the French government (read «National State, Regions and Communes»…). If memory serves (check the web site of «Tax Justice Network), in the UK, about a third of the largest 700 companies have paid an average of 2.5% of taxes on profits… And the same applies to all the most developed countries…

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