Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 March 2015
266. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Finance the current level of debt per capita of gross national product, and the way this compares with the similar current figures of debt per capita of gross national product for Greece. [11555/15]
View answerAt the end of 20131, the general government debt per capita figures were €46,950 for Ireland and €28,848 for Greece while the comparable Gross National Income (GNI) per capita figures were €32,391 and €16,486 for Ireland and Greece respectively. These equate to a debt to GNI percentage of 144.9% for Ireland and 175.0% for Greece.
It should be noted that Gross National Product (GNP) is not available for Greece on the Eurostat database. Therefore, for comparative purposes, the closely related Gross National Income (GNI) has been utilised. GNI is found by adjusting GNP for EU taxes and subsidies and is also a key measure used in the calculation of EU budget contributions from Member States.
Debt to GDP is a more commonly used indicator. In Ireland's case, as set out in the Budget documentation last October, the debt to GDP percentage for the of 2013 was 123.3% and the CSO have reported that the percentage stood at 114.8% as the end of the third quarter 2014. End 2014 figures will be available next month.
1All the data was sourced from Eurostat, 2013 is the most recent period for which official annual figures are published and the population figures for 2013 used to calculate the per capita figures are provisional.
