Greece grants Italy the title of the eurozone's most indebted country by the end of 2026. According to senior officials, Greek public debt is expected to decrease to 137% of GDP this year from 145% in 2025, while Italian will rise to 138.6%. As of 2020, Greece has reduced its debt by more than 45 percentage points, compared to only 17 Italy in the same period. The country plans to repay early rescue loans of EUR 7 billion later in the year.
Analyticalally:
Greece will no longer be the euro area's most indebted country until the end of this year, as the public debt It is expected to fall below Italian, according to sources and figures from Italy's new draft budget.
Greek debt is estimated to decrease to about 137% of gross domestic product this year from 145% in 2025, two senior officials said in Reuters.
On the contrary, Italy sees its debt rising from 137.1% of GDP in 2025 to 138.6% in 2026, according to the DDP of the Ministry of Finance published on Thursday.
«Greece will not be the most indebted country in the eurozone – as of this year», he told Reuters one of the two Greek officials.
The new estimate for Greece's debt ratio will be included in the country's new multiannual financial plan to be submitted to the European Commission at the end of this month.
Italy's debt will remain almost stable at 138.5% in 2027, before falling to 137.9% in 2028 and 136.3% next year, according to its draft budget.
As of 2020, Greece's public debt – the highest in the eurozone over the last two decades – has shrunk by more than 45 percentage points to 145% of gross domestic product last year. Italy reduced its debt by around 17 percentage points in the same period.
Greece, which recovers from a ten-year economic crisis and three bailout packages totalling around 280 billion euros, plans to repay earlier than the timeframe of loans worth around 7 billion euros from the first rescue package later in the year, comments Reuters.
