Government debt in the eurozone edged up in the first three months of the year following gains in nations at the centre of the region's financial crisis, dpa cited data released Tuesday as showing. Public debt in the 18-member currency bloc climbed from 92.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the final quarter of last year to 93.9 per cent in the first three months of this year, as a result bringing to an end two consecutive quarterly gains, the European Union statistics office Eurostat said. Leading the rise was a pickup up in debt levels in Italy, Spain and Portugal. First-quarter debt in Europe's second biggest economy, France, rose by 1.9 per cent to 96.6 per cent of GDP when compared with the three months to December 2013.
