By Rallou Alexopoulou

The ambitious goal of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio to 119% — almost 100 percentage points lower than the pandemic's historic high — will be incorporated into Greece's multi-year budget.

To achieve this goal, the Greek side will launch new, early debt repayments, with an emphasis on the bilateral loans of the first memorandum, which are scheduled to be fully repaid at least 10 years ahead of schedule.

The final draft of the state budget will be submitted to Parliament next week, providing for a debt-to-GDP ratio of 138.1%, a slightly higher figure than the forecast included in the preliminary draft.

At the same time, the multi-year budget for the period 2026–2029 will be presented with a baseline forecast that the debt-to-GDP ratio will be reduced to 119% by the end of the four-year period, i.e., in 2029.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis revealed the goal of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio below 120% for the first time since the outbreak of Greece's economic crisis: "We will continue to achieve primary surpluses of 2.8%, while recording the fastest debt de-escalation."