Government Finance Statistics Quarter 1 2023

Financing the deficit - general government debt at €223.6 billion at end of Q1 2023

Gross general government debt decreased by €1.1 billion in the quarter to €223.6 billion. This was accounted for almost entirely by the movement in debt securities (redemptions of €2.9 billion in long term and net issuance of €1.6 billion in short term securities). There were minor changes in the other debt categories with currency and deposits rising by €134 million and loans by €20 million. The debt to GDP ratio stood at 43.5% at the end of the first quarter.

EDP debt instrument assets increased by €4.3 billion in the quarter which, when combined with the fall in debt liabilities, resulted in net general government debt decreasing by €5.4 billion (Tables 3.1 & 3.2). The growth in assets is largely due to an increase in currency and deposits of €4.3 billion combined with a decrease in loans of €124 million.

Figure 3.1 above shows that the composition of general government debt remains relatively stable over time. In Q1 2023 securities accounted for over 66% of the total. Long term securities made up almost the entire total, with short term securities accounting for less than 1%.

Movements of note in the balance sheet, Q1 2023

The market value of the State's assets in Equity and Investment Fund Shares (AF.5, Table 3.3) stood at €34.8 billion at the end of Q1 2023, representing a rise of €0.1 billion in the quarter. This relatively small increase in value was composed of two offsetting movements –net disposals of these assets of €0.2 billion (AF.5, Table 3.2), together with unrealised holding gains of €0.3 billion. The reduction in equity holdings during the quarter is due in the most part to a further sale of shares held by the State in AIB, which amounted to €218 million.

Net investment into small savings schemes, predominantly by households, continued during the first quarter of 2023 as the State’s liability from these schemes grew by a further €134 million. This represents a quarter-on-quarter rise of €59 million in the level of quarterly investment into these savings products, although comparing this to Q1 2022 it represents a reduction of €173 million in the scale of quarterly investment.

The movement over the quarter in the market value of total liabilities (AF.L, Table 3.3) was largely flat and stood at €234 billion at the end of Q1 2023 . This net neutral change was mainly composed of offsetting movements as follows – net issuance of short-term bonds (AF.31, €1.6 billion) and net redemption of long-term bonds (AF.32, €3.6 billion) together with holding gains on the long-term securities of €1.9 billion.