The long-term interest rate on government debt is a key indicator of the economic health of a country. The rate reflects financial market actors' perceptions of the creditworthiness of the government and the health of the domestic economy, with a strong and robust economic outlook allowing governments to borrow for essential investments in their economies, thereby boosting long-term growth.

The Euro and converging interest rates in the early 2000s

In the case of many Eurozone countries, the early 2000s were a time where this virtuous cycle of economic growth reduced the interest rates they paid on government debt to less than 5 percent, a dramatic change from the pre-Euro era of the 1990s. With the outbreak of the Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent deep recession, however, the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland were seen to be much weaker than previously assumed by lenders. Interest rates on their debt gradually began to rise during the crisis, before rapidly increasing beginning in 2010, as first Greece and then Ireland and Portugal lost the faith of financial markets.

The Eurozone crisis

This market adjustment was initially triggered due to revelations by the Greek government that the country's budget deficit was much larger than had been previously expected, with investors seeing the country as an unreliable debtor. The crisis, which became known as the Eurozone crisis, spread to Ireland and then Portugal, as lenders cut-off lending to highly indebted Eurozone members with weak fundamentals. During this period there was also intense speculation that due to unsustainable debt loads, some countries would have to leave the Euro currency area, further increasing the interest on their debt. Interest rates on their debt began to come back down after ECB Chief Mario Draghi signaled to markets that the central bank would intervene to keep the states within the currency area in his famous "whatever it takes" speech in Summer 2012.

The return of higher interest rates in the post-COVID era

Since this period of extremely high interest rates on government debt for these member states, the interest they are charged for borrowing has shrunk considerably, as the financial markets were flooded with "cheap money" due to the policy measures of central banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis, such as near-zero policy rates and quantitative easing. As interest rates have risen to combat inflation since 2022, so have the interest rates on government debt in the Eurozone also risen, however, these rises are modest compared to during the Eurozone crisis.

Key information about European Union Government Debt: % of GDP

• European Union Government debt accounted for 81.6 % of the country's Nominal GDP in Sep 2024, compared with the ratio of 81.5 % in the previous quarter.
• EU government debt to GDP ratio data is updated quarterly, available from Mar 2000 to Sep 2024.
• The data reached an all-time high of 91.5 % in Mar 2021 and a record low of 62.4 % in Dec 2007.

• In the latest reports, EU National Government Debt reached 16,136.9 USD bn in Sep 2024.
• The country's Nominal GDP reached 4,430.4 USD bn in Mar 2023.

Interest payments (% of revenue) in European Union was reported at 2.8973 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. European Union - Interest payments (% of revenue) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on September of 2025.

The external debt (or the foreign debt), at any given time, is the outstanding amount of the actual current (and not contingent) liabilities that require payment(s) of principal and/or interest by the debtor at some point(s) in the future and that are owed to non-residents by residents of an economy. The external debt is the portion of a country's debt that was borrowed from creditors outside the country, including commercial banks, other governments or international financial institutions (such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.). The assets/liabilities include debt securities, such as bonds, notes and money market instruments, as well as loans, deposits, currency, trade credits and advances due to non-residents. The loans must usually be paid in the currency in which they was made. In order to earn the needed currency, the borowing country may sell and export goods to the lender's country. The data are expressed in % of GDP.

The statistic shows the national debt of France from 2020 to 2023, with projections up until 2030. In 2023, the national debt of France amounted to around 3.64 trillion U.S. dollars. For comparison, the Greek debt amounted to approximately 392.27 billion euros that same year. French national debt and developments in taxationFrance currently has one of the highest national debt levels of any of the world’s nations. Debt in the European Union’s second-largest economy is currently at around 97 percent of GDP. The cost of interest on the country’s debt alone comes in at over 1,600 euros per second; every man, woman, and child in France, of which there are 65.3 million in total, takes a share of just under 28 thousand euros of the debt.On 6th May 2012, the incumbent French President was defeated by François Hollande, leader of the French Socialist Party. The new President vowed to develop and change the tax system of France, announcing wide-ranging economic policies in a bid to balance the nation’s budget and right what he considered to be social wrongs. He pledged and supported the separation of lending and investment banks, as well as proposing sweeping changes to the French tax system. The introduction of the measure of capping tax loopholes at a maximum of ten thousand euros per year and questioning the solidarity tax on wealth, the annual direct wealth tax on those with assets above 1.3 million, were also part of Hollande’s proposals. The President has also signaled his intention to implement an income tax rate of 75 percent on revenue earned above one million euros per year. He stated the allocation of the revenue from this tax would be used to develop the deprived suburbs and to balance the nation's budget by 2017. France is a country brimming with big business and millionaires. The nation is home to the most millionaires in Europe; 2.6 million in total.

In September 2024, the national debt of the United States had risen up to 35.46 trillion U.S. dollars. The national debt per capita had risen to 85,552 U.S. dollars in 2021. As represented by the statistic above, the public debt of the United States has been continuously rising. U.S. public debt Public debt, also known as national and governmental debt, is the debt owed by a nations’ central government. In the case of the U.S., national debt is owed by the federal government to Treasury security holders. Generally speaking, government debt increases with government spending, and can be decreased through taxes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government increased spending significantly to finance virus infrastructure, aid, and various forms of economic relief. International public debt Venezuela leads the global ranking of the 20 countries with the highest public debt in 2021. In relation to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Venezuela's public debt amounted to around 306.95 percent of GDP. Eritrea was ranked fifth, with an estimated debt of 170 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The national debt of the United Kingdom is forecasted to grow from 87 percent in 2022 to 70 percent in 2027, in relation to the Gross Domestic Product. These figures include England, Wales, Scotland as well as Northern Ireland. Greece had the highest national debt among EU countries as of the 4th quarter of 2020 in relation to the Gross Domestic Product. Germany ranked 13th in the EU, with its national debt amounting to 69 percent of GDP in the same time period. Tuvalu was one of the 20 countries with the lowest national debt in 2021 in relation to the GDP, while Macao had an estimated level of national debt of zero percent, the lowest of any country. The data refer to the debts of the entire state, including the central government, the provinces, municipalities, local authorities and social insurance.

In 2025, public debt in France represented 116.2 percent of the country’s GDP. According to the source, public debt in France is supposed to remain stable in the upcoming years. There was a substantial increase between 2019 and 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the French government's economic response to it. Since 2005, public debt in France is increasing making the country one of the most in debt of the European Union. A debt country Public debt, also known as national debt, appears to be the difference between what a government is receiving and spending in a year. It is the accumulation of annual budget deficits, which happened when the government was spending more than receiving. Public debt in France is increasing since 2007, while the debt interest expenditure amounted to more than 40.3 billion euros in 2023. France’s revenue and spending Most of French public debt is generated by the State, in comparison with the social security system and the regional and local authorities. The budget balance of the country has been negative for years and does not appear to reach a positive one in the future. France spends most of its budget on tax repayments and abatement, as well as on education and defense. In 2023, France’s government spent more than 1.61 trillion euros, whereas its revenue amounted to 1.45 trillion euros. Non-tax revenue collected by the state came in majority from dividends, while it collected 70 billion euros by levying taxes on income and 140 billion euros through VAT in 2016.

Government Finance Statistics (GFS) form the basis for fiscal monitoring in Europe, most notably for the statistics related to the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP). The EDP is established in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and specified in the Stability and Growth Pact. The Member States report data related to the EDP to the Commission (Eurostat) which, in turn, is responsible for providing the data to the Council.

European GFS, including the statistics for the EDP, are produced in accordance with Regulation (EU) 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European system of national and regional accounts (ESA 2010), the EU manual for national accounts, which in September 2014 replaced the previous version of the national accounting framework ESA 95. It is supplemented by further interpretation and guidance from Eurostat, in particular the Manual on Government Deficit and Debt.

Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2009 as amended requires that Member States report government deficit/surplus (hereinafter deficit) and debt data related to the EDP twice per year: before 1 April and 1 October for the preceding four calendar years and a forecast for the current year. The data are reported in harmonised tables. These tables are designed specifically to provide a consistent framework, with a link to national budgetary aggregates and between the deficit and changes in the debt. They should be fully consistent with GFS data delivered to Eurostat under the ESA 2010 transmission programme.

The EDP notification tables contain for general government and its subsectors:

• Table 1: Summary table on deficit and debt, including auxiliary indicators (gross fixed capital formation, interest expenditure and gross domestic product - GDP);
• Tables 2A - 2D: Transition from the working balance to the deficit/surplus for general government subsectors;
• Tables 3A - 3E: Transition from the deficit/surplus to the change in debt for general government and its subsectors;
• Table 4: Supplementary data.

The data are presented in Eurostat's Statistics Database in national currency, euro/ECU, and percentage of GDP.

The EDP dataset includes data on government debt and deficit reported under the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP), which is a part of the corrective arm of the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact (link). Three series are available for EU Member States, the euro area and the European Union: deficit/surplus, consolidated general government debt, and interest expenditure. The data are available in euro or national currency, and as a percentage of GDP. The reference values for government deficit and debt are based on concepts defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). The surplus (+)/deficit (-) of the general government sector is referred to in the national accounts as net lending (+)/borrowing (-) (B.9). The government debt is defined as the total consolidated gross debt at face value in the following categories of government liabilities (defined in ESA 2010): currency and deposits, debt securities and loans. EU aggregates do not cover EU institutions debt and euro area aggregates do not cover euro area government institutions debt.

Eurostat uses as a base for its work the OECD Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment Third Edition, a detailed operational definition fully consistent with the IMF Balance of Payments Manual, Fifth Edition, BPM5.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is the category of international investment made by an entity resident in one economy (direct investor) to acquire a lasting interest in an enterprise operating in another economy (direct investment enterprise). The lasting interest is deemed to exist if the direct investor acquires at least 10% of the voting power of the direct investment enterprise.

FDI statistics record separately:

1) Inward FDI (or FDI in the reporting economy), namely investment by foreigners in enterprises resident in the reporting economy.

2) Outward FDI (or FDI abroad), namely investment by residents entities in affiliated enterprises abroad.

FDI statistics record both the initial investment and all subsequent investment made by the direct investor, either in the form of equity capital, or in the form of loans, or in the form of reinvesting earnings. Investment made through other affiliated enterprises of the same group of the direct investor should also be recorded according to the international methodology.

There are three main indicators: FDI flows, stocks and income.

The indicators described in more detail below are presented in the complete tables with a breakdown by partner country or region and a breakdown by the kind of activity in which FDI is made. In the table called "Main indicators" there is a reduced breakdown by partners and data for total activity only. See the part on classification system for more detail. See also the User's guideon the structure on the database and for practical information on data downloading.

1) FDI flows denote the new investment made during the period.

FDI flows are recorded in the Balance of Payments financial account. Total FDI flows are broken down by kind of instrument used for making the investment:

• Equity capital

comprises equity in branches, all shares in subsidiaries and associates (except non-participating, preferred shares that are treated as debt securities and are included under other FDI capital) and other contributions such as the provision of machinery.

• Reinvested earnings

consist of the direct investor's share (in proportion to equity participation) of earnings not distributed by the direct investment enterprise. Reinvested earnings are an imputed transaction. Reinvested earnings are also recorded with opposite sign among FDI income (see below). This recording represents not distributed income as being earned by the direct investor and reinvested in the direct investment enterprise at the same time.

• Other FDI capital (loans)

covers the borrowing and lending of funds, including debt securities and trade credits between direct investors and direct investment enterprises. Debt transactions between affiliated financial intermediaries recorded under direct investment flows are limited to permanent debt.

2) FDI stocks (or positions) denote the value of the investment at the end of the period.

FDI stocks are recorded in the International Investment Position. Outward FDI stocks are recorded as assets of the reporting economy, inward FDI stocks as liabilities. Similarly with flows, FDI stocks are broken down by kind of instrument. However, there are only two categories instead of three:

• Equity capital and reinvested earnings

is the value of the own capital of the enterprise, including the value of own reserves that are accumulated from past reinvested earnings. Reserves corresponding to reinvested earnings are not shown separately from other equity capital as in the case of flows.

• Other FDI capital

is the stock of debts (assets or liabilities) between the direct investors and the direct investment enterprise.

3) FDI income is the income accruing to direct investors during the period.

FDI income is recorded in the current account of the Balance of Payments. Total FDI income is broken down by kind of income. The categories of FDI income available are linked to the breakdown of FDI flows and stocks by kind of instrument, namely:

• Dividends

Dividends payable in the period and branch profits remitted to the direct investor, gross of any withholding taxes. Dividends include payments due on common and preferred shares.

• Reinvested earnings

See definition under FDI flows.

• Interest on loans

Interest accrued in the period on loans (other FDI capital) with affiliated enterprises, gross of any withholding tax.

4) FDI intensity

Out of FDI annual data, an indicator useful to measure EU market integration is also calculated and disseminated in the domain Structural Indicators:

• FDI intensity as % of GDP: Average of inward and outward FDI flows divided by GDP. A higher index indicates higher new FDI during the period in relation to the size of the economy as measured by GDP.

If this index increases over time, then the country/zone is becoming more integrated with the international economy.

This table presents some public finance variables on an annual basis, both in current prices (in billion euro) and as a percentage of GDP. Government finance statistics are compiled in the conceptual framework of the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010), complemented by the ESA 2010 Manual on Government Deficit and Debt. Public finance statistics form the basis of European fiscal monitoring, in particular statistics on the excessive deficit procedure (EDP). Some concepts: - Total revenue: correspond to the sum of tax and parafiscal revenue and non-tax and non-parafiscal revenue of all general government - Total expenditure excluding interest charges: correspond to the primary expenditure of the general government as a whole - Primary balance: difference between total revenue and total expenditure, excluding interest payments - EDP interest expense: interest on borrowings, cash position and hedging products under the Excessive Deficit Procedure - EDP financing balance: The EDP funding balance is an important standard for the budgets of the EU Member States. This balance represents the difference between ESA revenue and ESA expenditure. According to the Maastricht Treaty, the deficit of an EMU country cannot exceed 3% of GDP. - Public debt (Maastricht definition): general government debt as defined in the Maastricht Treaty is the nominal value of all outstanding gross liabilities at the end of the period (year, quarter) of the general government sector, with the exception of liabilities whose corresponding financial assets are held by the general government sector. The commitments referred to above relate to the following categories: cash and deposits, loans and securities other than shares, excluding financial derivatives, as defined in ESA 2010.

Mortgage interest rates worldwide varied greatly in June 2025, from less than ******percent in many European countries to as high as ***percent in Turkey. The average mortgage rate in a country depends on the central bank's base lending rate and macroeconomic indicators such as inflation and forecast economic growth. Since 2022, inflationary pressures have led to rapid increases in mortgage interest rates. Which are the leading mortgage markets? An easy way to estimate the importance of the mortgage sector in each country is by comparing household debt depth, or the ratio of the debt held by households compared to the county's GDP. In 2024, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada had some of the highest household debt to GDP ratios worldwide. While this indicator shows the size of the sector relative to the country’s economy, the value of mortgages outstanding allows to compare the market size in different countries. In Europe, for instance, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France were the largest mortgage markets by outstanding mortgage lending. Mortgage lending trends in the U.S. In the United States, new mortgage lending soared in 2021. This was largely due to the growth of new refinance loans that allow homeowners to renegotiate their mortgage terms and replace their existing loan with a more favorable one. Following the rise in interest rates, the mortgage market cooled, and refinance loans declined.

In January 2020, prior to the onset of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, three of the seven largest economies by GDP had negative yields for two-year government bonds (Japan, Germany and France). With the onset of the pandemic, two-year bond yields in these countries actually rose slightly - in contrast to the other major economies, where yields fell over this period. As of December 2024, yields for two-year government bonds exhibited fluctuations across all countries. Notably, Japan showed a slight upward trend, while China experienced a modest decline.Negative yields assume that investors lack confidence in economic growth, meaning many investments (such as stocks) may lose value. Therefore, it is preferable to take a small loss on government debt that carries almost no risk to the investor, than risk a larger loss on other investments. As both the yen and euro are considered very safe assets, Japanese, German and French bonds were already being held by many investors prior to the pandemic as a hedge against economic downturn. Therefore, with the announcement of fiscal responses to the pandemic by many governments around March 2020, the value of these assets rose as confidence increased (slightly) that the worst case may be avoided. At the same time, yields on bonds with a higher return fell, as investors sought out investments with a higher return that were still considered safe.