DUBLIN - Ireland had the fourth highest government debt to GDP ratio in the European Union (EU), behind Greece, Italy and Portugal, according to the EU's statistics office Eurostat on Wednesday.

New Eurostat figures showed that the highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2012 were recorded in Greece (150.3 percent), Italy (126.1 percent), Portugal (117.5 percent) and Ireland (111.5 percent), and the lowest in Estonia (7.3 percent), Bulgaria (16.5 percent) and Luxembourg (20.9 percent).

Ireland's debt to GDP in the second quarter stood at 111.5 percent, up 10 percentage points on the same time last year.

Eurostat said that at the end of the second quarter of 2012, the government debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 90 percent, compared with 88.2 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2012. In the EU 27 member states, the ratio increased from 83.5 percent to 84.9 percent.

Compared with the second quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the 17-member euro area (from 87.1 percent to 90.0 percent) and the EU 27 member states (from 81.4 percent to 84.9 percent).