Greece Sitting on €1.2B: The Measures Being Considered

Less than a week aft Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a €500 cardinal bundle of measures, his authorities is already working connected the adjacent round. Officials successful Athens are drafting up an further €200 cardinal successful alleviation measures for this year, while separately preparing what is expected to beryllium a €1 cardinal bundle of announcements for 2027, that will beryllium unveiled astatine the Thessaloniki International Fair this September.

Greece has been gripped by a persistent cost-of-living situation that predates the caller struggle successful Iran, though the war has driven vigor costs sharply higher and deepened the squeeze connected household budgets. Mitsotakis faces meaningful governmental risk: not from a resurgent opposition, but from increasing discontent among Greek voters. With his four-year term entering its last stretch and elections connected the horizon, the authorities is deploying its awesome surplus successful an effort to person budgetary outperformance into governmental goodwill earlier the timepiece runs out.

The Fiscal Windfall Behind the Spending

Greece’s superior fund surplus reached 4.9% of GDP successful 2025, well supra the 3.7% target, according to information certified by Eurostat and ELSTAT, Greece’s nationalist statistics authority. That outperformance, combined with spending constraints, creates a total fiscal envelope of €1.7 cardinal available crossed 2026 and 2027.

Last Wednesday’s package, which included expanded rent subsidies, a €150 outgo for families with children, and an summation successful pensioner support to €300, consumed €500 cardinal of that. Of the remaining €1.2 billion, €200 cardinal is earmarked for further alleviation measures aboriginal this year. The remaining €1 cardinal is reserved for the Thessaloniki announcements successful September, though the precise quality of those measures has not yet been determined.

What Is Being Considered for September

The authorities has signaled that businesses and the self-employed will beryllium a precedence absorption for the September package. Three specific measures are under consideration.

The archetypal is the abolition of the Annual Business Fee — a level levy charged to companies careless of whether they turn a profit. The interest was already eliminated for freelancers and the self-employed successful 2025; scrapping it for incorporated businesses has been a longstanding request from the backstage sector.

The 2nd targets beforehand firm income tax payments. Under existent rules, small and medium-sized enterprises indispensable prepay 80% of their anterior year’s income tax liability — a important cash-flow burden, peculiarly for businesses already navigating elevated costs. Newly established companies wage a reduced complaint of 50% for their archetypal three years; the authorities is weighing an hold of that alleviation to the wider SME population.

The third involves leader κοινωνικά information contributions. A half-percentage-point simplification is already scheduled for 2027. Officials are present examining whether a larger chopped is fiscally viable.

Source: tovima.com