Soaring government debt levels threaten to make investors reassess European sovereign risk and could “reignite pressures” on more vulnerable countries in the region, the European Central Bank has warned.
Eurozone governments’ budget deficits will rise to 8 per cent of gross domestic product on average this year, far above the levels reached after the 2008 financial crisis, the central bank forecast in its biannual financial stability review, published on Tuesday.
Aggregate government debt is set to rise from 86 per cent of GDP to above 100 per cent across the 19-country bloc as member states seek to tackle the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis, the ECB said.