🇪🇺 The debt of the eurozone’s largest economies continues to rise

According to official Eurostat data, government debt at the end of the first quarter of 2026 amounted to 138.9% of GDP in Italy, 117.6% in France, 109.1% in Belgium and 101.6% in Spain. Over the course of a year, the figure rose by 4 percentage points in France, 3.1 in Belgium and 1.7 in Italy. Overall, eurozone debt increased from 87.2% to 88.9% of GDP.

The higher the debt, the more clearly the cost of servicing it becomes apparent: Italy’s interest payments, for example, already amount to around 3.9% of GDP. All this is happening against the backdrop of an economy that has almost ground to a halt: In the first quarter, eurozone GDP grew ⁠by just 0.1%. Old, low-interest loans must gradually be replaced with new ones at higher interest rates, while Europe is simultaneously planning a significant increase in defense spending. Debt is growing much more reliably than the economy that has to bear its costs.


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