Only 10% of Malta’s debt held by non-residents

Long-term initial maturities largely prevail across Member States

Significant differences can be observed across the European Union regarding the sector in which government debt is held.

Among Member States for which data are available, the share of public debt held by non-residents in 2016 was highest in Cyprus (79%), followed by Latvia (72%), Austria (71%), Finland (70%) and Lithuania (69%).

In contrast, the largest proportion of debt held by the (resident) financial corporations sector was recorded in Denmark (67%), ahead of Sweden (64%), Luxembourg (63%), Croatia, Italy and Malta (all 62%).

Generally across the EU, less than 10% of debt was held by the resident non-financial sectors (nonfinancial corporations, households and non-profit institutions serving households), with the noticeable exceptions of Malta (28%), Hungary (18%), Ireland and Portugal (both 11%).

This information comes from an article released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. It provides detailed information on general government debt in the EU Member States broken down by subsector, financial instrument, debt holder, maturity, currency of issuance as well as government guarantees and other features.

Highest shares of short-term initial maturity in Sweden, Hungary and Portugal

With 22% of total government debt having a term below one year, Sweden registered in 2016 the highest proportion of short-term initial maturities of debt among the Member States, ahead of Hungary (19%) and Portugal (17%). Italy (13%), Denmark (11%), the Netherlands and France (both 10%) also recorded shares of short-term maturity debt above 10%.

At the opposite end of the scale, almost all debt was made up of long-term maturities in Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

General government gross debt mainly financed by debt securities in most Member States

In 2016, debt securities were the main financial instrument in almost all Member States. This was notably the case in Malta (93% of total general government debt), the Czech Republic (91%), Hungary and the United Kingdom (both 88%), Slovakia and France (both 85%), Italy and Slovenia (both 84%), Spain and Austria (both 83%) as well as Belgium (82%).

In contrast, loans largely prevailed in Estonia, Greece and Cyprus, where they accounted for 87%, 80% and 67% respectively. The use of loans was also high in Luxembourg (40%), Portugal (36%) and Croatia (35%). Currency and deposits generally made up a relatively small share of debt, except in Ireland (11%), the United Kingdom (10%), Portugal (9%) and Italy (8%).