Retail government bonds in Austria: how much individuals hold and what is on sale
Short answer: Individuals in Austria hold EUR 5.4 billion of Bundesschatz federal savings securities as of 31 December 2025, 1.73% of adjusted federal financial debt. Austria ranks ninth by this share among the 13 countries for which an official source gives both the amount and the debt. At the end of 2024, eight months after the relaunch, EUR 2.8 billion had been sold, all of it to private persons (0.95% of the debt); a year later private persons held EUR 5.4 billion (1.73%). Since June 2025 public-sector entities can invest too; counting them, Bundesschatz came to EUR 7.7 billion (2.46%).
How has it changed?
| Date | Amount | Share of debt |
|---|---|---|
| 31 December 2024 | 2.8 bn EUR | 0.95% |
| 31 December 2025 | 5.4 bn EUR | 1.73% |
Share of adjusted federal financial debt (bereinigte Finanzschulden: non-due financial debt after currency swaps, net of the federation’s own holdings) at the end of each year. 2024: amount sold, all to private persons (Rechnungshof, federal financial statements 2024); 2025: amount invested by private persons (Parliamentary Budget Office). The denominator is the federation’s own debt, not total public debt, so against general government debt the share would be lower. The Finance Ministry says the product is also open to money held in trust (guardianship, insolvency) and attractive for self-employed people using a tax allowance, so the private amount need not be household savings alone. Calculation obrotomierz.pl. File: obieg-szereg.csv.
A savings product that closed and came back
Austria has sold savings securities directly to individuals before. The first Bundesschatz started at the end of August 2002. In July 2019 its rates fell to zero for every term; as a security it could not go below zero, so in December 2019 the federal financing agency OeBFA announced that it would close the product on 30 June 2020, and it was discontinued that year. The federal government relaunched Bundesschatz on 22 April 2024. Two years later the Finance Ministry reported more than EUR 10 billion invested and more than 170,000 accounts opened, a total that includes public-sector entities. In October 2026 it gave about EUR 14 billion, of which almost EUR 10 billion came from private persons on more than 210,000 accounts. The comparison with other countries on this page uses the end-2025 figure, because for October 2026 the ministry gives only an approximate amount and no matching debt total.
Every figure for Austria in the dataset
Each row is one figure as published in an official source, with what it covers. Class A is a programme sold only to individuals; class C counts all government securities that households hold, with no retail programme; class X is a broader line or one that includes deposits, so it is never added to the A rows it contains.
| Programme | What it covers | Class | Amount | As of | Share of debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundesschatz, held by private persons | Bundesschatz invested by private persons (of 7.7 bn total; public entities since June 2025) | A | 5.4 bn EUR | 2025-12-31 | 1.73% |
| Bundesschatz, all holders | private persons plus public-sector entities | X | 7.7 bn EUR | 2025-12-31 | 2.46% |
- Bundesschatz, held by private persons: share of Austrian adjusted federal financial debt (bereinigte Finanzschulden, net of own holdings and swaps); valuation: invested volume (veranlagt).
- Bundesschatz, all holders: share of Austrian adjusted federal financial debt (bereinigte Finanzschulden, net of own holdings and swaps); valuation: invested volume (veranlagt).
How Austria compares
An official source gives the amount of government bonds sold to individuals in 16 countries; for 13 of them it also gives the debt, so we can compute a share. The figures are not fully comparable: each country measures its debt differently, and the class column above says what the amount covers.
| Country | Amount | As of | Share of debt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hungary | 12,542.1 bn HUF | 2026-09-30 | 18.51% |
| Portugal | 45.4 bn EUR | 2026-09-30 | 14.44% |
| Poland | 194.4 bn PLN | 2026-08-31 | 8.64% |
| Ireland | 19.4 bn EUR | 2025-12-31 | 8.36% |
| Italy | 112.6 bn EUR | 2026-09-30 | 4.16% |
| Czechia | 130.7 bn CZK | 2026-09-30 | 3.53% |
| Latvia | 503 m EUR | 2026-09-30 | 2.20% |
| Spain | 26.0 bn EUR | 2026-08-31 | 1.73% |
| Austria | 5.4 bn EUR | 2025-12-31 | 1.73% |
| South Africa | 21.9 bn ZAR | 2025-03-31 | 0.43% |
| United States | 145.2 bn USD | 2026-10-31 | 0.36% |
| Belgium | 1.6 bn EUR | 2026-06-30 | 0.29% |
| Canada | under 0.05 bn CAD | 2025-03-31 | 0.00% |
| United Kingdom | 139.6 bn GBP | 2026-03-31 | not given |
| Singapore | 20.2 bn SGD | 2026-11-02 | not given |
| Brazil | 279.3 bn BRL | 2026-09-30 | not given |
What is on sale today
- Bundesschatz (fixed)
Sales: continuously, online and, since July 2024, by post or phone (Finance Ministry, 3 July 2024; see Sources). We checked this on the issuer’s page, bundesschatz.at, on 25 October 2026.
Sources
- Parlamentarischer Budgetdienst (citing OeBFA): Finanzschulden und Währungstauschverträge 2025 (read on 7 November 2026)
- Österreichische Bundesfinanzierungsagentur (OeBFA): OeBFA Jahresrückblick 2025 (DE) (read on 7 November 2026)
- Rechnungshof Österreich (Austrian Court of Audit): Bundesrechnungsabschluss für das Jahr 2024, Textteil Band 3: Schulden, Haftungen und Entwicklung der öffentlichen Finanzen (read on 12 November 2026)
- Rechnungshof Österreich (Austrian Court of Audit): Bundesrechnungsabschluss für das Jahr 2025, Band 3: Schulden, Haftungen und Entwicklung der öffentlichen Finanzen (read on 12 November 2026)
- Staatsschuldenausschuss (today Fiskalrat Austria): Bericht über die öffentlichen Finanzen 2002 (start of Bundesschatz, end of August 2002) (read on 12 November 2026)
- Der Standard, 23 December 2019: Bundesschatzscheine wegen Nullzinspolitik nächstes Jahr eingestellt (read on 12 November 2026)
- Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), 22 April 2024: Bundesschatz: Neues Privatanlegerprodukt des Bundes gestartet (read on 12 November 2026)
- Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), 3 July 2024: Bundesschatz ab sofort auch analog (purchase by post or phone) (read on 12 November 2026)
- Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), 20 April 2026: 2 Jahre Bundesschatz: 170.000 Konten und 10 Milliarden sicher veranlagtes Volumen (read on 12 November 2026)
- Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), 23 April 2026: Bundesschatz: Innovationen für Bundesländer und Gemeinden (over EUR 3 billion from public-sector entities in ten months) (read on 12 November 2026)
- Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), 13 October 2026: Neues Rekordvolumen für www.bundesschatz.at (read on 12 November 2026)
- ORF, 22 April 2024: Staatsanleihen auch für Privatanleger wieder verfügbar (earlier product from 2002, discontinued in 2020) (read on 12 November 2026)
- Issuer’s page for individuals: https://www.bundesschatz.at/ (checked on 25 October 2026)
Data and citation
Every number on this page outside the section “A savings product that closed and came back” comes from our open dataset on government savings bonds for individuals in 195 countries (CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23638786 for all versions; the citation below gives the DOI of this version). Files for Austria and the other countries: obieg.csv, obieg-szereg.csv, obieg-zrodla.csv, produkty.csv and marze.csv (column names in Polish, described on the dataset page). That section cites its own sources, listed under Sources.
Błażewski, R. (2026). Government savings bonds for individuals in 195 countries (version 2026-11-13) [Data set]. obrotomierz.pl. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24168443
Frequently asked questions
How much do individuals hold in Austria’s retail government bonds?
Individuals in Austria hold EUR 5.4 billion of Bundesschatz federal savings securities as of 31 December 2025, 1.73% of adjusted federal financial debt. Austria ranks ninth by this share among the 13 countries for which an official source gives both the amount and the debt. At the end of 2024, eight months after the relaunch, EUR 2.8 billion had been sold, all of it to private persons (0.95% of the debt); a year later private persons held EUR 5.4 billion (1.73%). Since June 2025 public-sector entities can invest too; counting them, Bundesschatz came to EUR 7.7 billion (2.46%).
Can individuals buy government bonds directly in Austria?
Yes. Austria sells Bundesschatz (fixed). Sales: continuously, online and, since July 2024, by post or phone (Finance Ministry, 3 July 2024; see Sources). The issuer’s page is bundesschatz.at.
Does Austria sell inflation-linked savings bonds?
No. Austria sells no inflation-linked bonds to individuals; its retail products are Bundesschatz (fixed).
Other countries
- Retail government bonds in Hungary
- Retail government bonds in Portugal
- Retail government bonds in Ireland
- Retail government bonds in Italy
- Retail government bonds in South Africa
- Retail government bonds in Czechia
- Retail government bonds in the United States
- Retail government bonds in the United Kingdom
- Retail government bonds in Spain
- What all 195 countries sell to individuals
By Rafał Błażewski, obrotomierz.pl. Amounts and debt figures as published in the official sources listed above; shares calculated by us. We show who sells what and do not recommend any product; we earn nothing from government bonds.