ATHENS/ ROME ¨C Greece ?will no longer be the eurozone¡¯s most indebted country by the end of this year, with its public debt set to fall below Italy¡¯s, according to sources and data from ?Italy¡¯s new budget plan.
Greek debt is estimated to ?be ?reduced to about 137% of gross domestic ?product this year from 145% in 2025, two senior officials said.
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 eurozone ¡ª?from ?this year,¡°?one of the two Greek officials said.
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 ¡ª?the highest in the eurozone over the last two decades ¡ª?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 decadelong 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.?
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