Data released today by the European Union’s (EU) statistical office, Eurostat, indicates that in the second quarter of 2025, the ratio of public administration debt to GDP in the eurozone was 88.2%, an increase from the second quarter of 2024 (87.7% of GDP) and the first quarter of 2025 (also 87.7% of GDP).
Across the EU, the ratio also rose in the second quarter of this year to 81.9%, compared to the second quarter of 2024 (81.2% of GDP) and the first quarter of 2025 (81.5% of GDP).
Eurostat reports that at the end of the second quarter of 2025, general public debt consisted of 84.2% debt securities in the eurozone and 83.7% in the EU, as well as 13.2% loans in the eurozone and 13.8% in the EU, along with 2.5% currency and deposits, both in the eurozone and the EU.
Among member states on a year-over-year basis, Portugal recorded the fifth largest decrease, of 2.3 percentage points (pp), with public debt at 96.8% of GDP (compared to 99.1% of GDP in the second quarter of 2024).
In terms of the largest year-over-year decreases by country, Portugal ranked behind Greece (-8.9 pp), Ireland (-7.2 pp), Cyprus (-6.5 pp), and Denmark (-3.5 pp).
On a quarter-to-quarter basis, Portuguese public debt increased by 1.8 pp, as it was at 95% in the first quarter of 2025, ranking fourth among the largest ratio increases, behind only Finland (+4.3 pp), Latvia (+2.7 pp), and Bulgaria (+2.6 pp).
