Greek debt is estimated to be reduced to about 137% of gross domestic product this year from 145% in 2025, two senior officials said
By contrast, Italy sees its debt rising from 137.1% of GDP in 2025 to 138.6% in 2026, under the Treasury’s multi-year budget plan (DFP) published on Thursday.
“Greece will not be the most indebted country in the eurozone — from this year,” one of the two Greek officials said.
The new estimate for Greece’s debt ratio will be included in the country’s new multi-year fiscal plan that will be submitted to the European Commission at the end of this month.
Italy’s debt will remain virtually stable at 138.5% in 2027, before declining to 137.9% in 2028 and to 136.3% the following year, its budget plan showed.
Since 2020, Greece’s public debt — the highest in the eurozone over the last two decades — has shrunk by more than 45 percentage points to 145% of gross domestic product last year. Italy cut its debt by some 17 percentage points over the same period.
Greece, which is recovering from a decadelong financial crisis and three bailouts totalling about 280 billion euros, plans to repay ahead of schedule loans worth some 7 billion euros from its first bailout later in the year.
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