The 2025 draft budget will be submitted to the Parliament on Monday with the main priority being the maintenance of the primary surplus at high levels and fully aligned with the new fiscal rules.
Next year Greece has the potential to increase primary spending to 3.7%, due to better performance on surplus targets, thus enabling a series of interventions aiming to increase incomes and reduce taxes.
For 2025, a further reduction of the debt as a percentage of GDP is foreseen to 149.1% from 153.7%, which will take place in 2024, paving the way for new upgrades of the Greek debt.
Based on what is also included in the Medium-term Financial-Structural Plan 2025-2028, it is foreseen:
-inflation at 2.7% this year and falling to 2.1% in 2025
-higher primary surplus of 2.4% in 2024 (vs. a target of 2.1%), despite extraordinary spending, which is mainly due to higher growth rates and tackling of tax evasion. “Because of this primary surplus we convinced the EU that we could further increase spending. Because we have both the strength and the tools to achieve the reduction of the debt alongside a reasonable increase in expenses”, the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis said. In 2025 the primary surplus will be 2.5%.
-deficit of 1% this year and 0.6% in 2025, i.e. well below the 3% limit set by the new Stability Pact.
-reduction of public debt to 153.7% of GDP in 2025 and further reduction to 149.1% of GDP the following year. In the meantime, another early repayment of the installments of 7.9 billion euros for the years 2026-2028 from the loan received by our country in the context of the first memorandum is expected in December.
-continuation of the growth dynamics of the Greek economy, although at rates lower than the initial forecasts. GDP is estimated to grow by 2.2% in 2024 and 2.3% in 2025.
-unemployment is estimated to decrease to 10.3% in 2024 and 9.7% in 2025 from 18% in 2019.
The draft budget will also include all the measures that have already been announced, amounting to 1.45 billion euros.
