News European economy - What are the 3 European countries that outshine all other OECD member states with the greatest reduction in corporate debt? The OECD chart below shows the outstanding corporate bond debt by country at the end of 2024:
Only three OECD countries have seen a substantial reduction in corporate debt ratios since the 2008 financial crisis, according to the Global Debt Report 2025 report published on March 20th. The OECD report indicates that these three European countries have seen substantial deleveraging since 2008, all of which had been significantly impacted by the 2008 financial crisis.
Here are the 3 European countries that outshine all other OECD member states with the greatest reduction in corporate debt:
1 – Portugal
2 – Iceland
3 – Ireland
Moreover, the OECD highlights Portugal and Luxembourg as the only 2 OECD countries that registered decreases in refinancing needs above two percentage points of GDP.
On the other hand, most OECD countries have seen an increase in debt since 2008, since debt-to-GDP ratios have increased in 30 of 38 countries, with the median being by nine percentage points and the total sovereign and corporate bond debt worldwide has reached $100+ trillion.
The OECD reports that the global corporate bond debt is distributed as follows:
1 – United States
The United States has by far the world’s largest corporate bond market, totaling USD 11.4 trillion at the end of 2024, of which non-financial company debt represents more than 60%.
2 – China
China has a total bond market borrowing amounting to USD 6.7 trillion. Financial companies are more dominant in China, representing over 60% of total outstanding amounts.
3 – Europe
This dominance is particularly pronounced in bank based European economies, since financial company debt makes up an average of more than 70% of total debt in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
There are also stark cross-country differences in the size of corporate debt relative to the size of the economy. Total corporate bond debt amounts to more than 50% of GDP in nine OECD countries.
Luxembourg has by far the highest ratio of corporate debt with 447%, owing to its role as a major financial center and headquarter of major institutions, combined with a relatively small domestic economy. There are similar dynamics at play in the Netherlands, due many major international companies using it as their headquarters.
Here is the OECD chart showing the outstanding corporate bond debt by country, end-2024:
