Govt debt decreases by €4.7b in Q3

General government EDP debt, or consolidated gross debt at nominal prices amounted to EUR 159.2 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2020 and decreased by EUR 4.7 billion during the quarter, according to Statistics Finland.

Relative to GDP, general government debt was 67.1 per cent. Correspondingly, general government debt has grown by EUR 15.6 billion compared with the respective period of the year before.

During the third quarter, central government debt decreased by EUR 3.9 billion and was EUR 131.6 billion at the end of the quarter. The number of short-term debt instruments with a maturity of under one year grew by EUR 0.1 billion and the stock of long-term bonds decreased by EUR 3.8 billion. The stock of short-term loans decreased by EUR 0.2 billion but the stock of long-term loans remained almost unchanged.

The local government sector's debt decreased by EUR 0.2 billion and totalled EUR 25.9 billion at the end of the quarter. The number of debt instruments decreased by EUR 0.2 billion and the loan stock remained almost on level with the previous quarter. Social security funds' debt fell by EUR 0.4 billion and totalled EUR 3.2 billion at the end of the quarter.

Of them, employment pension schemes' debt decreased by EUR 0.3 billion due to cash collateral received in connection with derivative contracts and securities lending. The debt of other social security funds decreased by EUR 0.1 billion due to the fall in the stock of debt securities.