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Only six of the EU’s 27 member nations posted a surplus for
2024, figures released by Eurostat showed. Greece’s surplus of
1.3% of gross domestic product — compared to an overall EU
deficit of 3.2% — was a marked improvement in financial
performance for a country that was deeply mired in a debt crisis
that roiled the EU and international financial markets about a
decade ago.
The figures “record a significant overperformance by the
national economy and a surplus in state coffers. Which means
that, with everyone’s help, we did much better than we
expected,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a
televised address to the nation.
“Dynamic growth, along with the fight against tax evasion and a
series of other reform measures, brought additional revenue,
even above the targets we had set,” Mitsotakis said. “So despite
the strict European fiscal rules, a significant portion of them
can now be returned to citizens.”
In order to tackle housing problems, renters will have the cost
of one month’s rent returned to them each November, starting
this year, Mitsotakis said, while 250 euros (nearly $290) per
year will be given at the end of each November to older,
disabled and uninsured people.
Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said that the rent returns
will be allocated to households according to annual income
levels, and will apply to 948,000 households, or about 80% of
renters in Greece, while the 250-euro benefit will apply to a
total of 1.4 million people.
An additional 500 million euros ($575 million) per year will be
paid into the country’s Public Investment Program to speed up
public infrastructure and social projects “and, amidst
international instability, to increase investments so that new
jobs continue to be created,” he added.
Greece’s fiscal performance has been steadily improving since it
began emerging a few years ago from a nearly decade-long
financial crisis which saw it lose access to borrowing on the
international bond market, leaving it dependent on successive
international bailouts. Unemployment skyrocketed as the country
saw a quarter of its economy wiped out.
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