Worldwide issuance of euro-denominated debt hit a record high last year as the EU ramps up efforts to internationalise its single currency amid mounting concerns about the reliability of the US dollar.
The European Central Bank (ECB) reported on Tuesday that global euro-denominated loans and bonds surged to nearly €1 trillion in 2025 – a 30% increase from 2024 and the highest level since the currency’s inception in 1999.
The euro also became the world’s leading currency in the issuance of green and sustainable bonds, the ECB found, with its global market share rising from 35% to 41% – supplanting the US dollar, whose share fell from 42% to 32%.
Nevertheless, the euro’s global role, as calculated by the ECB by analysing the currency’s use across a wide range of indicators, increased by just 0.2 percentage points at constant exchange rates. The euro’s 20% global share, though comfortably the world’s second-largest, also still leaves it far behind the dollar, whose share remained steady at 57%.
The euro’s proportion of total official reserves also remained stable at 15%, the ECB found. Gold’s share, meanwhile, rose from 20% to 27% – surpassing US Treasuries, which fell from 25% to 22%.
“The international role of the euro grew moderately in 2025… [but] viewed from a longer-term perspective, the role of the euro has grown gradually but steadily,” said Christine Lagarde, ECB president, adding that the currency’s global share has risen 1.5 percentage points since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
She also noted that the euro, which is used by 21 of the EU’s 27 member states, appears to have provided a “safe haven” for investors seeking shelter from recent US financial instability, amid Donald Trump’s attacks on the international trading system, the Federal Reserve, and the rule of law.
“There is an opening for the euro to enhance its global appeal – provided that European policymakers create the necessary conditions and put words into action,” Lagarde said.
Echoing Lagarde’s remarks, Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s economy commissioner, said on Tuesday that turning the euro into a “truly global currency” is “both necessary and urgent”.
Boosting the currency’s international role would lower EU borrowing costs and bolster the bloc’s resilience to US sanctions, he added.
Dombrovskis also reiterated Lagarde’s call for EU capitals to accelerate long-stalled efforts to build “unified, liquid, and efficient” capital markets to attract global investors.
“The euro can… act as a credible alternative for those looking to reduce their exposure to a single dominant currency,” he said.
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