The General Government1 (GG) consolidated debt to GDP ratio (using the categories of debt set out under the Excessive Deficit Procedure2) continued to decline during 2019. By end-year it stood at €221.2bn which is equivalent to 62.1% of total economy GDP. Figure 5.1 shows GG Debt (at market value), and its ratio to GDP, over the years 2009 to 2019. It can be seen from this graph that Ireland’s debt level grew steadily in the period 2009-2013 but fell cumulatively by €7.7bn from its 2013 peak in the subsequent years.
| Government Debt (EDP) | GDP | Government Debt/GDP | MIP Threshold | |
| 2009 | 108.33435006407 | 169.7857658586 | 63.8064972739187 | 60 |
| 2010 | 132.384310107976 | 167.673724861373 | 78.9535213209027 | 60 |
| 2011 | 182.588157530741 | 170.950867842987 | 106.807388482194 | 60 |
| 2012 | 218.425781633966 | 175.103900726585 | 124.74067152566 | 60 |
| 2013 | 228.913753410661 | 179.616296795189 | 127.445982071262 | 60 |
| 2014 | 227.830405031963 | 195.14804464658 | 116.747470078203 | 60 |
| 2015 | 223.175075401417 | 262.853307489155 | 84.904800146228 | 60 |
| 2016 | 221.027849561463 | 270.809463934612 | 81.6174761214517 | 60 |
| 2017 | 218.216419595915 | 300.386866883115 | 72.6451265530283 | 60 |
| 2018 | 219.192846208056 | 326.986075813387 | 67.0343058684708 | 60 |
| 2019 | 221.178026704926 | 356.051170557232 | 62.1197302507882 | 60 |
In contrast, Figure 5.2, which complements Figure 5.1, shows the evolution of General Government debt by financial instrument composition over the same period.
| AF.2 Deposits | AF.3 Securities | AF.4 Loans | |
| 2009 | 10.3083552900018 | 94.7869232790347 | 3.23907149503314 |
| 2010 | 13.7111877012 | 84.0812743070504 | 34.5918480997254 |
| 2011 | 58.3880982937987 | 85.1860258465305 | 39.0140333904118 |
| 2012 | 62.09905376814 | 94.1605524859483 | 62.1661753798782 |
| 2013 | 31.35599946586 | 126.145725805009 | 71.4120281397922 |
| 2014 | 20.9178684987815 | 141.987618046794 | 64.9249184863874 |
| 2015 | 20.71320365463 | 146.32102820694 | 56.140843539847 |
| 2016 | 21.3150164097728 | 143.056988607493 | 56.6558445441975 |
| 2017 | 21.59981035044 | 146.5452291647 | 50.0713800807755 |
| 2018 | 21.6478297496638 | 146.998264280189 | 50.5467521782029 |
| 2019 | 22.2197555313604 | 149.782079430666 | 49.1761917429001 |
The official measure of Gross General Government Debt (GG Debt or “Maastricht Debt”) used for EDP purposes is reported at face value resulting in a ratio of 57.4% of GDP for end-20193, an improvement over its end-2018 value of 63.0% of GDP. The improvement in the debt to GDP ratio during 2019 is due largely to an increase in GDP for the year, coupled with a relatively small increase in GG Debt of €2.0bn. The relative composition of GG Debt is illustrated in Figure 5.3.
| AF.2 Deposits | AF.3 Debt Securities | AF.4 Loans | |
| 2009 | 9.51531557987415 | 87.494800331545 | 2.98988408858089 |
| 2010 | 10.3571093054886 | 63.513020718597 | 26.1298699759144 |
| 2011 | 31.9780313703907 | 46.6547376338952 | 21.3672309957141 |
| 2012 | 28.430276546843 | 43.1087171951801 | 28.4610062579769 |
| 2013 | 13.6977350633925 | 55.1062240365738 | 31.1960409000337 |
| 2014 | 9.18133314815769 | 62.3216282422332 | 28.4970386096092 |
| 2015 | 9.28114558374132 | 65.5633376369461 | 25.1555167793126 |
| 2016 | 9.64358855776024 | 64.7235128475119 | 25.6328985947278 |
| 2017 | 9.89834330085594 | 67.1559131233418 | 22.9457435758023 |
| 2018 | 9.87615705720429 | 67.0634406291981 | 23.0604023135976 |
| 2019 | 10.0460953840608 | 67.7201445650341 | 22.2337600509051 |
Gross disposable income (B.6g) continued to grow in 2019, rising in the year by €5.7bn to stand at €52.7bn at end-2019. This represented a rise of 12.0% over the year. Gross saving (B.8g) of general government increased by €2.6bn in 2019 while the government surplus4 (B.9) stood at €1.4bn for the year. Last year saw the first surplus since 2007, while net borrowing has fallen steadily from its 2010 peak of €53.8bn.
| B.8g Gross Saving | B.9 Net Lending (+) / Net Borrowing (-) | |
| 2009 | -12.204673383371 | -23.5248978423443 |
| 2010 | -11.7232393402857 | -53.7697708288966 |
| 2011 | -10.2550400198777 | -21.8992217175922 |
| 2012 | -9.71453381962732 | -14.1964418058488 |
| 2013 | -7.06245216065935 | -11.1278011309368 |
| 2014 | -2.38977508805972 | -7.09265577182925 |
| 2015 | 2.24401148475454 | -5.20815112612402 |
| 2016 | 3.43551387177282 | -1.91182781282471 |
| 2017 | 5.03905094028592 | -0.915517430169998 |
| 2018 | 7.8277657177919 | 0.445045936403972 |
| 2019 | 10.4257205574177 | 1.4207009137672 |
1Note the data estimates for the Government sector presented in this publication refer to the July 2020 vintage – please see Government Accounts for the most recent vintage of Government sector data.
2Defined under EU regulations governing the Excessive Deficit Procedure as the sum of gross liabilities of the consolidated General Government sector (S.13) in the categories AF.2 (Currency & Deposits), AF.3 (Debt Securities) and AF.4 (Loans) at market value.
3Further details on GGDebt and its components at nominal value can be seen in the CSO release Government Finance Statistics – Annual, October 2020.
4Technically this is known as the Net Lending/Net Borrowing (B.9).
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.