Contingent liabilities and non-performing loans in 2024

The most common form of contingent liabilities in the EU countries is government guarantees on liabilities and, occasionally, on assets of third parties.

In 2024, the highest levels of government guarantees were recorded in the Netherlands (31.0% of GDP), Finland (17.0%) and Italy (14.6%). On the lower end of the scale, rates equal to or less than 1% of GDP were recorded in Ireland, Czechia and Bulgaria. 

This information comes from data on contingent liabilities and non-performing loans published by Eurostat today. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Source dataset: gov_cl_guar

In most EU countries, the central government is the predominant guarantor. A notable level of local government guarantees can be seen in Finland, Sweden, France and Denmark.

Liabilities of public corporations highest in Germany

The level of liabilities of public corporations classified outside general government in 2024 varied widely across the EU countries. Significant amounts of liabilities were recorded in Germany (84.4% of GDP), ahead of the Netherlands (73.1%), Luxembourg (65.0%) and France (61.9%).

In contrast, amounts of less than 10% of GDP in public corporation liabilities were recorded in Slovakia (3.4%), Spain (4.3%), Cyprus (7.3%) and Romania (8.7%).

Source dataset: gov_cl_liab

Cyprus remained the country with the highest level of non-performing loans 

In 2024, Cyprus remained the country with the highest stock of non-performing loans (assets) of the general government, at 9.0% of GDP. In the other countries, stock of non-performing loans was below 1% of GDP, with the highest percentages reported by Croatia (0.8% of GDP), Greece (0.6%) and Sweden (0.5%).

Portugal and Slovakia with largest liabilities related to off-balance public-private partnerships  

Liabilities related to off-balance public-private partnerships (PPPs, long-term construction contracts where assets are recorded outside government accounts) were below 2% of GDP. 9 EU countries had no such liabilities. Portugal had the highest share (1.2% of GDP), followed by Slovakia (1.0%) and Latvia (0.6%). These PPP liabilities are predominantly due to motorway projects.