Institutional Sector Accounts Non-Financial and Financial 2015

In contrast, Figure 14, which complements Figure 13, shows the evolution of the composition by financial instrument of General Government debt over the same period.

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 78.6 per cent of GDP for end-2015², an improvement over its end-2014 value of 105.2 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 88.1 per cent of GDP indicated previously. The improvement in the debt to GDP ratio during 2015 is due largely to an increase in GDP for the year, although the reduction in the ratio was also driven in part by a repayment of IMF loans. In tandem with this reduction in loan liabilities, the relative composition of GGDebt (shown in Figure 15) continued to return to a more expected distribution as the state increasingly relied on the issuance of debt securities as a means of raising finance.

Gross disposable income (B.6g) continued to grow in 2015, rising in the year by €5.5bn to stand at €34.7bn at end-2015. This represented a rise of 18.8 per cent over the year. Gross saving (B.8g) of general government increased by €5.1bn in 2015 contributing to a reduction in the deficit³ (B.9) which stood at €4.7bn for the year. Government net borrowing has fallen steadily from its 2010 peak of €53.7bn and has declined by €49.0bn during the ensuing period.