The key facts

  • Eurozone government debt in Q2 reached 88.8% of GDP (a year earlier — 87.3%), the whole EU — 82.9%; in absolute terms, eurozone countries owe about €14.4 trillion.
  • Greece — 140.8% of GDP, Italy — 139.9% (a gap of less than one percentage point); France — 119.1%, its deficit over the past year — 5.1% of GDP.
  • The yield on 10-year French bonds exceeded 5% for the first time since 2002; on Friday Moody's will review France's rating, and most economists expect a downgrade.

Eurozone debt continues to grow

The government debt of the 21 eurozone countries from April to June reached 88.8% of combined GDP, up from 87.3% a year earlier, the EU statistics agency Eurostat reported on Wednesday. Across the whole EU, debt rose to 82.9% of GDP from 81.4%. In monetary terms, eurozone governments owe about €14.4 trillion. Under EU rules, debt must not exceed 60% of GDP, and the budget deficit must not exceed 3%. Last year, 12 member states had debt above that threshold, and 11 countries had deficits of 3% or higher.

Annual data and deficits

According to annual data published on Wednesday, the EU's combined debt in 2025 rose to 81.5% of GDP from 80.3% in 2024, and the bloc's budget deficit was 3.1% — slightly above the permitted 3%. EU debt has remained above 80% of GDP since the COVID-19 pandemic, when it peaked at 89.5% in 2020. Eurostat's annual figures for the eurozone so far cover 20 countries, as Bulgaria joined the currency union only on 1 January 2026; their debt rose to 87.7% of GDP from 86.6%. Eurostat issued a quality caveat on Bulgarian statistics for 2025 regarding the accounting of spending by the road infrastructure agency. Deficits are rising again this year: in Q2, the combined deficit of eurozone countries increased to 3.3% of GDP from 3.2% in the first quarter, and across the whole EU — to 3.5% from 3.1%.

Italy approaches Greece

Greece retained its status as the most indebted EU country with a figure of 140.8% of GDP in the second quarter, but Italy has almost caught up — 139.9%. Over the year, Greece's debt fell by 11.2 percentage points thanks to budget surpluses, while Italy's debt rose by 1.3 points in the second quarter alone. For comparison: in 2022, Greece's debt stood at 177.8% of GDP versus 138.4% for Italy.

France under market pressure

France has the third-largest debt in the EU — 119.1% of GDP, an increase of 3.7 percentage points over the year, one of the sharpest in the bloc. Debt above 100% of GDP is also maintained in Belgium (110.2%) and Spain (101.4%). The lowest figure is in Estonia — 26.1%, followed by Denmark and Luxembourg; debt grew the most over the year in Poland — by 6.7 points. Eurostat's data came out on the same day when the yield on 10-year French government bonds exceeded 5% for the first time since 2002, as investors demand a larger premium for holding French debt. France's budget deficit over the past year was 5.1% of GDP — the fourth largest in the EU after Romania, Poland and Belgium.

Political context and rating expectations

France's divided parliament is discussing a draft budget for 2027 that envisages reducing the deficit to 5% of GDP, but Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has no majority to push through the planned spending cuts. On Friday, the rating agency Moody's is due to review France's credit rating; most economists expect a downgrade, which, as Euronews notes, could further increase the country's borrowing costs. In Germany, the bloc's largest economy, the debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 62.8% from 61.4%, and the deficit widened to 2.9%.