Individual government challenges and the Covid-19 debt surge

The re-emergence of coronavirus across Europe threatens the pace of global recovery and will stretch government purses further. This paper focuses on individual countries and shows that each faces its own limits. Germany has the lowest debt to GDP ratio of its peers and amongst the highest debt limits. Italy has amongst the highest debt in Europe, but a new government and the ECB have helped keep rates low. Spain and France face different political challenges to their debt outlooks.