Surplus funds, new aid

Greece is using a stronger-than-expected 2025 budget surplus to fund a new €500 million relief package for households, pensioners and debtors. (ec.europa.eu) (ekathimerini.com) Eurostat updated its government finance database on April 22, 2026, and Greece’s 2025 primary surplus was reported at 4.9% of gross domestic product. eKathimerini said the Hellenic Statistical Authority put that surplus at €12.13 billion. (ec.europa.eu) (ekathimerini.com) Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the measures on April 22, saying the money would go to renters, families with children, low-income pensioners, farmers and people with overdue debts. The package includes a diesel subsidy extension, rent-aid changes, a child allowance and new debt-settlement terms. (ekathimerini.com) (en.protothema.gr) The biggest household measure is a €150 emergency payment per child at the end of June, with reports putting coverage at about 975,000 households or nearly 1 million families. A separate annual payment of €300 each November will go to low-income pensioners, uninsured elderly people and people with disabilities. (ekathimerini.com) (en.protothema.gr) For renters, reported income thresholds for reimbursement were raised to €25,000 from €20,000 and to €35,000 from €28,000, with a higher ceiling for single-parent families. ProtoThema said that would add about 70,000 renters and bring total coverage to roughly 1 million. (en.protothema.gr) For fuel and farming, the diesel subsidy was extended through May at 20 euro cents per liter, while the fertilizer subsidy was extended through August at 15% of purchase costs. Reported costs were €55 million for diesel support and €23 million for fertilizer aid. (ekathimerini.com) (en.protothema.gr) The debt measures target both households and businesses. They include easier lifting of bank-account seizures after 25% of a debt is repaid, broader access to the out-of-court settlement mechanism for debts between €5,000 and €10,000, and repayment plans of up to 72 installments for older overdue debts. (ekathimerini.com) (en.protothema.gr) The relief comes as Greece’s broader fiscal picture keeps improving, even though its debt load remains high by European standards. The European Commission’s November 2025 forecast projected Greece’s general government balance at 1.1% of gross domestic product in 2025 and gross public debt at 147.6% of gross domestic product, falling to 142.1% in 2026. (ec.europa.eu) That mix of surplus and aid is now central to the government’s message: keep fiscal discipline, then recycle part of the overperformance into targeted support. The next test is whether the one-off payments and debt relief ease living-cost pressure without knocking Greece off the budget path it has spent years rebuilding. (ekathimerini.com) (ec.europa.eu)