Greece to be overtaken by Italy as euro zone's most indebted country in 2026, sources say

Greek debt is estimated to be reduced to about 137% of gross domestic product this year from 145% in 2025, two senior officials told Reuters.

By contrast, Italy sees its debt rising from 137.1% ⁠of GDP in 2025 to 138.6% in 2026, under the Treasury's multi-year budget plan (DFP) published on Thursday.

"Greece will not be the most indebted country in the euro zone - from this year", one of the two Greek officials told Reuters.

The new estimate for Greece's debt ratio will be included in the country's new multi-year fiscal plan that will be submitted to the European Commission at the end of this month.

Italy's debt will ‌remain ⁠virtually stable at 138.5% in 2027, before declining to 137.9% in 2028 and to 136.3% the following year, its budget plan showed.

Since 2020, Greece's public debt - the highest in the euro zone over the last two decades - has ⁠shrunk by more than 45 percentage points to 145% of gross domestic product last year. Italy cut its debt by some 17 percentage points over the same ⁠period.

Greece, which is recovering from a decade-long financial crisis and three bailouts totalling about 280 billion euros, plans to repay ahead of schedule loans worth ⁠some 7 billion euros from its first bailout later in the year.