While the economy in other EU countries is stagnant, Greece has a problem of a completely different nature: the 2025 budget has twice as much money as planned. Accordingly, spending levels must be adjusted to this. When adopting the budget, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized that it is now important for economic success to be felt more strongly by the people, writes DPA.
Finance Minister Costis Hatzidakis expected a budget surplus of $6.1 billion, but the billions on top turned out to be $13.5. This is mainly due to Hatzidakis' austerity policy, financial experts say. But there are other reasons for the golden rain that has poured over Greece: the serious fight against tax evasion is reflected. The digitalization of the financial authorities has made it possible to reduce VAT fraud through undeclared work. Added to this are the revenues from privatization carried out by the conservative government. In 2024, 5.8 billion euros should be received along this line, with the Athens city highway concession alone bringing in 3.3 billion.
Revenues are not only from tourism
The economic situation also plays a role, which in Greece is developing differently than in many other EU countries. While the average growth for the Community is 0.9 percent, the European Commission expects 2.3 percent growth for Greece in 2025 after 2.1 percent this year.
This is not only due to booming tourism. To a much greater extent, the government has managed to regain the trust of the markets. International rating agencies once again believe that the country is worth investing in. DPA reports that Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, as well as a number of German companies have settled there in recent years.
Salaries and pensions are still low
Despite the good development, Mitsotakis warns that it is too early to relax - due to the relative poverty of Greeks, whose salaries and pensions were greatly reduced during the financial crisis from 2010 to 2018. The economic recovery is reaching the people very slowly, although the government is constantly increasing pensions and the minimum wage by small amounts. A 2.4 percent increase in pensions is planned for next year.
And unemployment should fall below 10 percent next year - after reaching a record 40 during the crisis. Greece is also doing an excellent job of paying off its debts - loans to international creditors are being serviced, and the crisis amount given by the IMF was repaid ahead of schedule. The government debt ratio should decrease to 147 percent in 2025 - from 164 percent just two years ago.