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Eurozone debt jumps to 90pc of GDP

Wednesday, October 24 10:53:07

Euro zone government debt rose to 90 percent of the single currency area's gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2012 from 88.2 percent in the first three months, data from the European Union's Statistics Office showed today.

The most indebted euro zone country, relative to its economic output, was Greece, which in the second quarter had a public debt of 300.807 billion euros, or 150.3 percent of its GDP.

That was down from 158.8 percent of GDP or 340.906 billion euros a year earlier.

Greek debt fell to 136.9 percent of GDP, or 280.423 billion euros in the first quarter, after a restructuring of privately held debt, but then grew again as a result of new loans from the euro zone to keep Athens from bankruptcy. Eurostat said loans from euro zone governments to Greece, extended under the first bailout programme, totalled 1.6 percent of euro zone GDP in the second quarter.