Greece sees 2025 economic growth at 2.3%, lower fiscal deficit

Greece’s economy will continue to rebound next year thanks to higher investment and tourism receipts, allowing the government to reduce its fiscal deficit, the finance minister said on Wednesday after submitting the 2025 budget to parliament. Athens is forecasting economic growth of 2.3% in 2025, it said on Wednesday, outperforming Europe’s major economies.

That is inline with the 2.2% growth expected in 2024 and marks another year of rebound from a 2009-18 debt crisis. “In 2025, Greece will have the fourth highest primary budget surplus throughout the European Union,” Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said in a televised statement.



The government sees a primary budget surplus – which excludes debt-servicing costs – of 2.4% of gross domestic product in 2025, down from a surplus of 2.5% this year.

Is also targeting a general government deficit of just 0.6% of GDP next year from 0.7% this year, approaching a balance budget for the first time in decades.

The country almost went bankrupt in 2010 after revealing a budget deficit of about 15% of GDP. That triggered a series of international bailouts worth 280 billion euros ($295.29 billion) and years of austerity that slashed wages and pensions.

Full recovery remains out of reach. Thousands of workers took to the street on Wednesday in a general strike over pay and wages. Greece is still the euro zone’s most indebted nation.

The smaller deficit and the primary surplus allow the government to increase its spending for vulnerable households and low pensioners by 1.1 billion euros next year. The country, which regained its investment-grade status in 2023 after 13 years, needs to maintain primary budget surpluses in the next coming years to make sure its debt is sustainable.

Public debt is seen at 147.5% of GDP in 2025 from 154% of GDP this year, while harmonised inflation is expected to be 2.1% in 2025, down from 2.

7% in 2024. A debate on the budget expected tostart in parliament in the middle of December. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Editing by Mark Potter, Edward McAllister, Peter Graff).