![\"Greece](\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/KBJ67DRQKRKCPG2NGUOA4KGZGQ-320x200.jpg?v=1744378739\")
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People sit under a Greek national flag atop the Acropolis in Athens, June 22, 2015. [Alkis Konstantinidis\/Reuters]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Greece will pay off loans granted under the first of three debt-crisis bailouts by 2031, two government officials have told Reuters, as the country seeks to lose its label as the most indebted country in the European Union.<\/p>\n
The payments, which will come in \u20ac5-billion annual increments, will allow Greece to pay off the debt 10 years before the loans expire, the officials said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
The Greek economy is gradually rebounding from a 2009-2018 crisis that saw it nearly drop out of the eurozone and that triggered years of social unrest as ordinary citizens fought against austerity-induced cuts in wages and pensions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur aim is to fully repay, ten years earlier than scheduled, the rest of the loans from the first bailout which expire by 2041,\u201d said one of the officials. The source said that Greece will tap a \u20ac37 billion cash buffer, proceeds from higher-than-projected primary surpluses and new bond issues to fund the repayments.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Reuters, Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis did not comment on the specifics of the timing or the size of the yearly payments, but did acknowledge that loans would be paid back ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that this approach will enable Greece to shed the title of the most indebted EU country within the coming years,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a realistic and achievable goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greece\u2019s public debt, now the highest in the eurozone, is expected to drop below 140% by 2027, Pierrakakis said, without giving an exact figure.<\/p>\n
Borrowing costs have fallen sharply since Greece regained investment grade status in 2023 and are now lower than Italy. The two officials said Greece\u2019s public debt is expected to drop to about 135% by 2027, potentially above Italy, whose debt is expected to rise to 138% of GDP in 2026.<\/p>\n
Greece\u2019s crisis began in 2009 when the government discovered a giant hole in the country\u2019s finances, caused by decades of tax evasion and bloated public services.<\/p>\n
As the crisis threatened to derail the EU economy, Greece received three bailouts from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund between 2010 and 2015, worth \u20ac280 billion. Greece paid off the IMF in 2022 and by the end of 2024 had paid off \u20ac22 billion of its \u20ac53 billion first bailout. The rest will now be paid by 2031.<\/p>\n
Many Greeks who lost everything in the crisis are still struggling with lower wages and inflation. But the economy has rebounded and the government expects 2.3% growth this year, twice the eurozone\u2019s average.<\/p>\n
As the debt of major EU economies, including Germany and Italy, is rising in part due to increased defense spending, Greece has cut its debt burden by more than 50 percentage points since 2020, to 147% of GDP.<\/p>\n
The second government official said that the debt will decline in 2024, as an absolute number, for the first time since it exited its third bailout, to \u20ac365.8 billion. [Reuters]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n