At the end of 2019, public debt stood at €249.7 billion (Chart 1), a €0.6 billion increase from 2018.

This increase was driven by a rise in debt securities (€2.3 billion) and deposit liabilities (€1.0 billion), mainly in Treasury certificates. These changes were partly offset by a decline in liabilities arising from loans through the early repayment of €2.0 billion of loans granted under the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) of the Economic and Financial Assistance Programme (Chart 2).

General government deposits declined by €2.1 billion in 2019, with public debt net of deposits increasing by €2.7 billion from the previous year, to a total of €235.3 billion.