As the Greek government prepares to make an additional debt repayment of €8 billion in December, as announced by Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis, the German newspaper Handelsblatt highlights the progress the Greek economy has made in recent years in reducing its public debt.
Once at risk of default, Greece has made notable progress in debt reduction over the past few years, notes the German online medium. From 2020 to 2023, the Greek economy has made impressive strides, with the country having reduced its debt-to-GDP ratio by 45.1 percentage points. According to Eurostat data, the public debt as a percentage of GDP dropped from 209% in 2020 to 163.9% by the end of 2023.
In December, Minister Hatzidakis plans to make an €8 billion repayment to the country’s creditors for loans initially acquired at the beginning of the debt crisis in May 2010. Originally, these payments were scheduled for 2026-2028. By advancing this repayment, the Finance Minister aims to further reduce Greece’s public debt, Handelsblatt underlines.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that Greece’s public debt, which includes deferred interest from institutional bailout loans, will decrease from 168.9% of GDP in 2023 to 159% this year while easing to 139.4% by 2029—a decrease of nearly 30 percentage points.
Analysts from the credit rating agency Scope are even more optimistic, projecting the debt-to-GDP ratio to fall to 132.8% by 2029. Based on Scope’s forecast, Greece could hand over the “red light” of the EU’s highest public debt percentage to Italy by 2028.
