Reported by Consejeros Editorial Team
In most European Union (EU) countries for which data was available, the apparent cost of public debt rose slightly or remained stable between 2024 and 2025, according to data published by Eurostat.
The highest apparent cost of gross government debt among the countries for which data was available was recorded in Romania (5.2%), followed by Poland (4.5%), the Czech Republic (3.1%) and Italy (3%).
The lowest apparent cost of debt was recorded in Ireland (1.4%), followed by Luxembourg (1.5%), the Netherlands (1.7%), Germany (1.8%), as well as France, Finland and Sweden (all at 1.9%).
Conversely, the apparent cost of debt fell in 2025 in seven EU countries. The largest decreases were recorded in Estonia (0.8 percentage points), Sweden (0.3 percentage points) and Croatia (0.2 percentage points).
Furthermore, the European Union’s statistical office has also reported that the euro area’s gross public debt is largely denominated in euros.
Across the EU, the structure of gross public debt varies considerably from one country to another. These differences relate, for example, to the initial and remaining maturity of the debt, the debt instruments used and the main institutional sectors holding it. However, when analysing the denomination of gross public debt, a more uniform picture emerges.
At the end of 2025, for all euro area members (EA20), all or almost all (more than 99.5%) of their gross public debt, at face value, was denominated in euros.
Similarly, in the Czech Republic and Sweden, more than 90% of gross public debt was denominated in their national currencies.
In only two EU countries was more than 50% of general government gross debt denominated in foreign currency at the end of 2025: Bulgaria (75%, with 71% of the debt denominated in euros) and Romania (53%). Significant proportions of foreign-currency debt were also observed in Hungary (32%), Poland (26%) and Denmark (24%).
Most of the foreign-currency debt of all non-euro area EU countries at the end of 2025 was denominated in euros. Across all EU countries, more than 90% of gross public debt was denominated in euros or, in the case of non-euro area EU countries, in their national currency.
