Brussels, 03/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - A report on the structure of government debt in the EU published by the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, on Thursday 3 July shows that, in 2013, 81% of public debt in the EU28 was financed by issuing securities (bills, bonds, etc. excluding shares and financial derivatives), 16% by loans and 4% by currency and deposits.
The highest proportions of public debt financed by securities other than shares in 2013 were in Malta (92% of total debt), the Czech Republic (90%), the United Kingdom (90%), Belgium (87%), Slovenia (87%), France (84%) and Italy (84%). The use of shares to finance public debt was commonest in Estonia (86%) and Greece (75%). The use of currency and deposits was in general very low, apart from the Ireland (10%), the United Kingdom (9%) and Italy (8%).
The highest share of public debt held by non-residents in 2013 was in Finland (82% of total public debt), followed by Latvia (80%) and Austria (72%). The highest proportion of public debt held by the home country's financial sector was in Luxembourg (98%), Romania (71%) and Croatia (63%). In general, up to 10% of debt was held by the home country's financial sector, except in Poland (34%), Malta (33%) and Italy (13%). (MB)