Greece has completed an early repayment of €5.3 billion in bailout-era debt, continuing its effort to reduce obligations dating back to the country’s financial crisis.
The repayment, finalized on December 15, relates to bilateral loans from Greece’s first international rescue package under the Greek Loan Facility, established during the 2010 bailout. These loans were originally scheduled to mature between 2033 and 2041. The payments were made to the individual eurozone countries that provided the loans, using the European Commission as the administrative channel.
Greek officials estimate that the early repayment will save approximately €1.6 billion in interest payments through 2041. The loans carried variable interest rates, which had exposed Greece to higher servicing costs as rates rose across Europe. This specific repayment is also expected to reduce public debt by about 2.2 percent of GDP.
The repayment forms part of a broader debt management strategy announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in 2023. Under the plan, Greece aims to fully repay all loans from its first bailout program by 2031, a decade earlier than originally agreed.
To date, Greece has prepaid roughly €29 billion in bailout debt. This includes all outstanding International Monetary Fund loans, which were fully repaid in 2022.
Approval for the early repayment was granted earlier this month by the boards of the European Stability Mechanism and the European Financial Stability Facility. The decision allows Greece to target its highest-cost debt without triggering proportional repayments to other creditors. The funds were drawn from a special cash reserve created at the conclusion of Greece’s third adjustment program.
Despite the progress, Greece remains the most indebted country in the euro area. Government projections show public debt declining from nearly 146 percent of GDP at the end of 2025 to below 120 percent by 2029. Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis has said the goal is for Greece to shed that distinction in the coming years.
Opposition parties have criticized the early repayment strategy, arguing that available liquidity could instead be used to support wages, public services, and households facing continued cost-of-living pressures. The government maintains that reducing debt and interest costs strengthens Greece’s long-term fiscal stability and lowers future risk.