To fully repay individual expensive debt obligations to eurozone countries (first memorandum) by 2031, a decade ahead of the original maturity date of 2041, the country, on December 15, embarked on a new early debt repayment move.

Having received the green light from ESM, European loans from the Greek Loan Facility (GLF), with a floating interest rate maturing between 2033 and 2041, were repaid for €5.287 billion. This move was added to previous repayments (which in total have exceeded EUR 15 billion), contributing substantially to improving debt sustainability and reducing exposure to floating interest rates. In particular, EUR 7.935 billion of obligations were paid in December 2024, EUR 5.29 billion were repaid in December 2023, while EUR 2.645 billion were paid in December 2022.

In fact, a new early repayment of €8.8 billion is planned for 2026, to further reduce these expensive first memorandum obligations.

It is noted that an additional €7.9 billion has been allocated for the early repayment of loans to the IMF, leading to the cancellation of the corresponding debt. In total, the country has repaid early loans of €29 billion, saving more than €3.5 billion in interest to date. From the December 15 repayment alone, the estimated interest relief is €1.6 billion.

After the bilateral loans (GLF), it is the turn of the expensive obligations to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), totalling €141.8 billion, maturing in 2070. The Ministry of Economy and Finance and theGovernment Debt Management Agency (GEMA) are considering scenarios to further ease the burden of the memorandum loans on the budget, as 61.9 billion in debt will be added from 2034. EUR 61.9 billion to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which will have to be repaid by 2060.

From 2034 onwards, the government will have to repay EUR 61.9 billion to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Due to the “cash cushion”, estimated at around €44.8 billion, and the high primary surpluses (3.8% of GDP this year), the country can, on the one hand, cover interest costs and, on the other hand, proceed with parallel discounting, thus reducing borrowing costs.

It is noted that, according to the DFI, total financing needs in 2026 amount to EUR 24.7 billion. The state will pay EUR 8.9 billion for debt interest and EUR 5.2 billion for interest, including interest rate swaps. In addition, revenues of EUR 4.2 billion are expected from other sources, such as the Recovery and Resilience Fund and the European Investment Bank, while an additional EUR 618 million is estimated to be raised from equity and investment funds. As a result, there will be no pressure for hasty exits to the international capital markets, and the moves of the ODIHR will be aimed at maintaining regularity in issuance, a stable presence in the markets and continued improvement of liquidity in the secondary market.