This report highlights the high level of debt that has built up around Europe, including the UK, in recent years. It discusses the economic and business implications of these high public and private debt levels and the way that deleveraging by governments, households, banks and companies may interact.

The key points from the report are that:

  1. Total EU government debt has now risen above 10 trillion euros, equivalent to around 21,000 euros per person. At a time of slow growth and steadily ageing populations, this is a major concern .[ Click to view infographic]
  2. Governments have started to implement austerity programmes to address these high debt levels, but the scale and impact of these measures varies significantly by country. Businesses operating across different EU countries need to understand these differences and our economic modelling tools can help with this task.
  3. The UK does not have the worst public debt position but it is particularly exposed to possible household deleveraging (more so than any other EU country than Greece according to our analysis). Since the Eurozone crisis is limiting UK export growth, much will depend on the strength of the UK consumer going forward.

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