Government Debt

HC Deb 30 March 1995 vol 257 cc719-20W

21. Mr. Garnier

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the gross general Government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product for European Union member states in 1994 in descending order. [15296]

Mr. Aitken

The information requested is shown in the following table. This shows that among EU member states, only Luxembourg has a lower debt-GDP ratio than the United Kingdom.

Gross general Government debt up to 1994 as a percentage of GDP
Belgium	140
Italy	124
Greece	121
Ireland	89
Sweden	79
Netherlands	79
Denmark	78
Portugal	70
Finland	70
Spain	64
Austria	65
Germany	51
France	50
United Kingdom1	49
Luxembourg	9

Source:

¹ End March 1995

For UK, excessive deficits return 1 March 1995; for other EU countries, European Commission Economic Forecast, November 1994.