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 2012 is similar for both the euro area and the EU27, amounting to 1.2% and 0.9% of GDP respectively.
Government debt at the end of the first quarter 2012 by Member State
The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2012 were recorded in Greece (132.4%), Italy (123.3%), Portugal (111.7%) and Ireland (108.5%), and the lowest in Estonia (6.6%), Bulgaria (16.7%) and Luxembourg (20.9%).
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2011, twenty-one Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2012, and six a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Lithuania (+4.0 percentage points - pp), Portugal (+3.8 pp), Spain (+3.7 pp) and Belgium (+3.6 pp), and the largest decreases in Greece (-33.0 pp), Hungary (-1.8 pp) and Denmark (-1.5 pp). It should be noted that the change in debt ratio between two successive quarters can be influenced in some cases by seasonal patterns.
Compared with the first quarter of 2011, twenty-three Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2012, and four a decrease. The highest increases in the ratio were recorded in Portugal (+17.2 pp), Cyprus (+11.0 pp) and Ireland (+8.2 pp), and the largest decreases in Greece (-20.0 pp) and Hungary (-4.1 pp).
