{"id":7029,"date":"2026-05-23T09:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7029"},"modified":"2026-05-23T09:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:17:00","slug":"growth-and-surpluses-the-two-strong-cards-of-the-greek-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=7029","title":{"rendered":"Growth and surpluses: the two strong “cards” of the Greek economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two key elements seem to strengthen the position of the Greek economy against the consequences of the war in Iran<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The first is a higher rate of growth than the rest of Europe. The second is the strong primary surpluses<\/strong>, which allow the public debt<\/strong> to continue to decline. <\/p>\n

This is the picture painted by the European Commission’s spring forecasts<\/strong>, published later this week. Despite the fact that the Commission<\/strong> revised down its forecasts for the EU and eurozone economy due to the energy shock from the Middle East conflict, Greece still outperformed on critical indicators. <\/p>\n

Higher growth than the eurozone <\/h2>\n

According to these new estimates, the Greek economy will continue to outperform the rest of Europe in both 2026<\/strong> and 2027<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The Commission<\/strong> forecasts that Greece’s growth rate will be 1.8% in 2026<\/strong> and 1.6% in 2027<\/strong>. At the same time, average growth in the EU<\/strong> is estimated at 1.1%<\/strong> for 2026 and 1.4%<\/strong> for 2027. <\/p>\n

Eurozone<\/strong> forecasts are even lower. Growth is expected to reach only 0.9%<\/strong> in 2026, compared to a previous estimate of 1.2%, while for 2027 the rate is estimated at 1.2%<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

European economies are under strong pressure from rising energy prices and geopolitical uncertainty. However, Greece continues to present a more resilient picture. <\/p>\n

Positive picture on the fiscal front as well<\/h2>\n

The country’s picture is also better on the fiscal front. Greece remains on a path of surpluses, while most European economies continue to record high deficits. <\/p>\n

Based on the forecasts of the Commission<\/strong>, the general government budget balance will remain in surplus in 2026<\/strong>, at 0.8% of GDP<\/strong>, down from 1.7% in 2025<\/strong>. For 2027<\/strong>, the surplus is estimated at 0.6% of GDP<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

On the counterpart in the EU.<\/strong> the deficit is projected to rise to 3.5% of GDP in 2026<\/strong> from 3.1% in 2025, while in 2027 it is expected to be 3.6%<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

In the eurozone<\/strong>, the deficit is estimated to reach 3,3%<\/strong> in 2026 from 2.9% in 2025 and will rise further to 3.5% of GDP<\/strong> in 2027. <\/p>\n

Debt continues to fall<\/h2>\n

The public debt<\/strong> is following a different path. While in many European economies the ratios are increasing, in Greece the deceleration continues. <\/p>\n

The Commission<\/strong> estimates that Greek debt will fall from 146,1% of GDP in 2025<\/strong> to 140.7% in 2026<\/strong>, while in 2027<\/strong> it will be further reduced to 134.4% of GDP<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

In contrast, in the EU.<\/strong> debt is projected to rise from 82.8% of GDP in 2025<\/strong> to 84.2% in 2026<\/strong> and to 85.3% in 2027<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The picture is similar in the eurozone<\/strong>, where average debt is estimated to rise from 88,7% of GDP in 2025<\/strong> to 90.2% in 2026<\/strong> and to 91.2% in 2027<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Greece’s goal remains to reduce debt below 120% of GDP by 2029<\/strong>. At the same time, another major change is expected to take place this year: Greece is projected to cease to be the most indebted country in the eurozone, a position that is expected to be passed to Italy<\/strong>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n Two key elements seem to strengthen the position of the Greek economy against the consequences of the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}