Greece’s Ministry of National Economy and Finance published a parliamentary speech by Deputy Minister Athanasios Petralias outlining the 2026 State Budget, which it characterised as having strong reform content and the largest intervention in personal income taxation in decades. The speech linked the package to the EU expenditure-rule framework, under which spending is capped and any additional revenues are directed to debt repayment. For 2026, the budget projections cited GDP growth of 2.4% versus 1.2% for the euro area, investment growth of 10.2% versus a 2.5% euro-area average, and a 5.0% increase in net per-capita dependent-employment pay against estimated inflation of 2.2%. Debt is projected at 138.2% of GDP in 2026 (145.9% in 2025), with early debt repayments described as delivering interest savings of around EUR 150 million per year for each EUR 5.3 billion repaid and more than EUR 800 million per year with full repayment by 2030. Total investment is put at EUR 46 billion in 2026 (EUR 18 billion public and EUR 28 billion private), including EUR 7.2 billion of spending from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, while the medium-term path cited shifts the mix to 78% private investment by 2029 with total investment of EUR 51.7 billion; the total cost of the fiscal interventions described was EUR 2.9 billion in 2026 plus a further EUR 2.0 billion in 2027. Measures and timings highlighted included a new income tax scale from January 2026 that reduces wage withholding, a 30% VAT reduction from 1 January 2026 for islands in the North Aegean Region, Samothrace and Dodecanese islands with populations up to 20,000, and abolition of the subscription television levy from January 2026. The speech also set out changes to ENFIA assessments (50% reductions from March 2026 for eligible owners in small settlements, moving to zero from March 2027), reductions to ‘living expense’ presumptions affecting around 477,000 taxpayers from the March 2026 filing season, and a 50% cut to minimum presumed income for self-employed people in small settlements outside Attica alongside exemptions for new self-employed mothers. Further steps referenced included additional minimum wage increases from 1 April 2026 and to EUR 950 from 1 April 2027, an additional 0.5% cut in social security contributions from January 2027, and a reduction in the rental income tax rate for the EUR 12,000–24,000 band from 35% to 25%.

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