General Government1 (GG) consolidated debt (using the categories of debt set out under the Excessive Deficit Procedure2) showed a slight increase during 2018. By end-year it stood at €219.7bn which is equivalent to 67.8% of total economy GDP. Figure 5.1 shows GG Debt (at market value), and its ratio to GDP, over the years 2008 to 2018. It can be seen from this graph that Ireland’s debt level grew steadily in the period 2008-2013 but fell cumulatively by €9.2bn from its 2013 peak in the subsequent years.
| Government Debt (EDP) | GDP | Government Debt/GDP | MIP Threshold | |
| 2008 | 82.7937901006314 | 187.7690542818 | 44.0934159344362 | 60 |
| 2009 | 108.33435006407 | 170.1005489897 | 63.6884188249325 | 60 |
| 2010 | 132.384310107976 | 167.7322978065 | 78.9259503621046 | 60 |
| 2011 | 182.593953530741 | 170.826991148 | 106.88823370573 | 60 |
| 2012 | 218.411630022966 | 175.1156587604 | 124.724214595684 | 60 |
| 2013 | 228.902038798166 | 179.6612565167 | 127.407568685733 | 60 |
| 2014 | 227.821165492533 | 194.8182043915 | 116.940388709626 | 60 |
| 2015 | 223.194408567987 | 262.8334178893 | 84.918580886846 | 60 |
| 2016 | 221.124852919033 | 271.6836179395 | 81.3905728273519 | 60 |
| 2017 | 218.339145787286 | 297.1308373808 | 73.4824926661733 | 60 |
| 2018 | 219.725845561198 | 324.0381891236 | 67.8086265558615 | 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 | |
| 2008 | 8.84483765523 | 70.5859252525122 | 3.36302719288925 |
| 2009 | 10.3083552900018 | 94.7869232790347 | 3.23907149503314 |
| 2010 | 13.7111877012 | 84.0812743070504 | 34.5918480997254 |
| 2011 | 58.3880982937987 | 85.1918218465305 | 39.0140333904118 |
| 2012 | 62.09905376814 | 94.1605524859483 | 62.1520237688782 |
| 2013 | 31.35599946586 | 126.145725805009 | 71.4003135272966 |
| 2014 | 20.9178684987815 | 141.987618046794 | 64.9156789469574 |
| 2015 | 20.71320365463 | 146.32102820694 | 56.160176706417 |
| 2016 | 21.3150164097728 | 143.056988607493 | 56.7528479017675 |
| 2017 | 21.5967536383 | 146.55433679695 | 50.1880553520358 |
| 2018 | 21.6382160613638 | 147.078068912189 | 51.0095605876455 |
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 63.6% of GDP for end-20183, an improvement over its end-2017 value of 67.8% of GDP. The improvement in the debt to GDP ratio during 2018 is due largely to an increase in GDP for the year, coupled with a relatively small increase in GG Debt of €1.4bn.
| AF.2 Deposits | AF.3 Debt Securities | AF.4 Loans | |
| 2008 | 10.6829722911339 | 85.2550960243742 | 4.06193168449188 |
| 2009 | 9.51531557987415 | 87.494800331545 | 2.98988408858089 |
| 2010 | 10.3571093054886 | 63.513020718597 | 26.1298699759144 |
| 2011 | 31.9770163057281 | 46.6564309492252 | 21.3665527450467 |
| 2012 | 28.4321186383757 | 43.1115103513705 | 28.4563710102538 |
| 2013 | 13.6984360779364 | 55.1090442301556 | 31.1925196919079 |
| 2014 | 9.18170550728182 | 62.3241557648198 | 28.4941387278984 |
| 2015 | 9.28034164812895 | 65.5576585209882 | 25.1619998308829 |
| 2016 | 9.639358094939 | 64.6951198470099 | 25.6655220580511 |
| 2017 | 9.89137956019136 | 67.1223367978772 | 22.9862836419315 |
| 2018 | 9.84782468630307 | 66.9370817695748 | 23.2150935441222 |
Gross disposable income (B.6g) continued to grow in 2018, rising in the year by €5.1bn to stand at €46.0bn at end-2018. This represented a rise of 12.6% over the year. Gross saving (B.8g) of general government increased by €2.2bn in 2018 while the government surplus4 (B.9) stood at €0.02bn for the year. This is the first surplus since 2007, net borrowing has fallen steadily from its 2010 peak of €53.8bn.
| B.8g Gross Saving | B.9 Net Lending (+) / Net Borrowing (-) | |
| 2008 | -2.35165361795709 | -13.1783613299899 |
| 2009 | -12.1946318896836 | -23.5148563486569 |
| 2010 | -11.7270220986188 | -53.7735535872296 |
| 2011 | -10.2918137867201 | -21.9359945398578 |
| 2012 | -9.69178777596416 | -14.1736956788639 |
| 2013 | -7.02747766153175 | -11.0928266318092 |
| 2014 | -2.41112541833329 | -7.11800610210282 |
| 2015 | 2.33621473117647 | -5.08561562446768 |
| 2016 | 3.70395813260804 | -1.80578895372296 |
| 2017 | 5.23203604096335 | -0.820856824562966 |
| 2018 | 7.42522516502891 | 0.0185256479501204 |
1Note the data estimates for the Government sector presented in this publication refer to the July 2019 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 2019.
4Technically this is known as the Net Lending/Net Borrowing (B.9).
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