Greece – one of the few EU countries with budget surplus last year – announces economic profits of $1.15 billion
The Greek prime minister on Tuesday announced 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) of financial returns for low-income households and public investment programs after becoming one of the few European Union members to acquire budget surplus in 2024.
Figures released by Eustat say that only six of the 27 EU member states posted surplus in 2024. The 1.3% surplus of Greece’s gross domestic product was a marked improvement in the financial performance of a country that was deeply plagued by the debt crisis that struck the EU and international financial markets about a decade ago, compared to the overall EU deficit of 3.2%.
The figures “record the significant excess performance of the national economy and the surplus of national funding. This means that with the help of everyone, we did much better than we expected,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis said in a broadcast speech to the country.
“Dynamic growth, along with fighting tax evasion and a series of other reform measures, has led to additional revenues beyond the targets we set,” Mitotakis said. “Therefore, despite the strict European financial rules, a significant portion of them can be returned to the citizens.”
To tackle housing issues, renters will pay back the monthly rent costs every November starting this year, Mitsotakis said, but 250 euros (nearly $290) each year are given to seniors, disabled and unsuspecting people at the end of November.
Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said that rent returns will be allocated to households according to their annual income level and will apply to 948,000 households, or around 80% of Greek renters, and that the 250 euro benefits will apply to a total of 1.4 million people.
A yearly 500 million euros ($575 million) will be paid to the national public investment programme to speed up public infrastructure and social projects.
Greece’s fiscal performance has steadily improved since it began to emerge from a nearly ten-year financial crisis several years ago, losing access to borrowing in the international bond market and relying on consecutive international bailouts. Unemployment rates skyrocketed as the country saw a quarter of its economy wiped out.
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com