In 2014 General Government consolidated gross debt (using the categories of debt set out under the Excessive Deficit Procedure1) fell for the first time since 2006. By end-year the market value of GGD stood at €228.8bn which is equivalent to 121.0 per cent of total economy GDP (The equivalent figure at nominal value for 2014 was €203.2bn or 107.5% of GDP). Figure 13 compares GGDebt, and its ratio to GDP, over the years 2004 to 2014. It can be seen from this graph that Ireland’s debt level grew steadily in the period 2007-2013 but fell in 2014 by 1.2% from its 2013 level (at market value). An improved deficit position was also reported for the government sector in 2014.
| Government Debt (EDP) | GDP | Government Debt/GDP | |
| 2004 | 45.8571330019445 | 156.1766 | 29.3623583827183 |
| 2005 | 47.7425016549223 | 169.9777 | 28.0875089231837 |
| 2006 | 45.3926409049678 | 184.9233 | 24.5467395968858 |
| 2007 | 48.1589997604151 | 197.0537 | 24.4395308286092 |
| 2008 | 82.8384485126221 | 187.5472 | 44.1693869663861 |
| 2009 | 108.462710744582 | 169.4317 | 64.0155949238437 |
| 2010 | 132.998750142475 | 166.1575 | 80.0437838451319 |
| 2011 | 182.300959709293 | 173.94 | 104.806806777793 |
| 2012 | 218.875014287769 | 174.8442 | 125.182885270297 |
| 2013 | 231.574396785387 | 179.4477 | 129.048406184859 |
| 2014 | 228.764336439176 | 189.0459 | 121.009943320207 |
Figure 14, which complements Figure 13, shows the evolution of the composition by financial instrument of General Government debt over the same period (again at market values).
| AF.2 Deposits | AF.3 Securities | AF.4 Loans | |
| 2004 | 8.075785619 | 36.0840746953169 | 1.69727268762756 |
| 2005 | 8.319461788 | 37.4540731254042 | 1.96896674151812 |
| 2006 | 8.07298413008546 | 35.2984643928547 | 2.02119238202768 |
| 2007 | 7.67560499197 | 38.3880586867587 | 2.09533608168643 |
| 2008 | 8.84483765523 | 70.6250700665029 | 3.36854079088925 |
| 2009 | 10.3083552900018 | 94.7874404355872 | 3.36691501899314 |
| 2010 | 13.7111877012 | 84.112498073454 | 35.1750643678211 |
| 2011 | 58.3880982937987 | 85.2226554864047 | 38.69020592909 |
| 2012 | 62.09905376814 | 94.2945016006563 | 62.4814589189731 |
| 2013 | 31.35599946586 | 126.302329291301 | 73.9160680282257 |
| 2014 | 20.9173714399815 | 142.409373736884 | 65.4375912623101 |
The official measure of General Government Debt (GGDebt or “Maastricht Debt”) used for EDP purposes is reported at face value resulting in a ratio of 107.5 per cent of GDP for end-20142, an improvement over its end-2013 value of 120.0 per cent of GDP. In the current publication all liabilities are measured at market value and substituting this market valuation for the face value used in the calculation of GGDebt gives rise to the higher figure of 121.0 per cent of GDP. The improvement in the debt to GDP ratio during 2014 is due to a combination of increased GDP for the year together with an early repayment of a portion of IMF loans.
Gross disposable income (B.6g) grew by €5.3bn from €23.9bn in 2013 to €29.2bn in 2014 – a rise of 22.3 per cent over the year. Gross saving (B.8g) of general government increased by €4.1bn in 2014 contributing to a reduction in the deficit3 (B.9) which stood at €7.3bn for the year. Government net borrowing has fallen steadily from its 2010 peak of €53.7bn to a borrowing requirement of €7.3bn in 2014.
| B.8g Gross Saving | B.9 Net Lending (+) / Net Borrowing (-) | |
| 2004 | 7.22429717479556 | 2.17071494904823 |
| 2005 | 7.60944462396003 | 2.18311328418037 |
| 2006 | 10.9695376021447 | 5.19536296960848 |
| 2007 | 8.58083927050805 | 0.537118840449202 |
| 2008 | -2.27169364085434 | -13.1011513528871 |
| 2009 | -12.1211263638397 | -23.440850822813 |
| 2010 | -11.630412166335 | -53.6772022157725 |
| 2011 | -10.2448028724517 | -21.8004325986327 |
| 2012 | -9.52145325685327 | -14.0652541094966 |
| 2013 | -7.25061072193929 | -10.1501588817691 |
| 2014 | -3.19934357437626 | -7.33100046321129 |
1Defined 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 face value.
2Further details on GG Debt and its components at nominal value can be seen in the CSO release Government Finance Statistics – Annual, October 2015
3Technically this is known as the Net Lending/Net Borrowing (B.9)
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