The general government debt amounted to 206.3 % of GDP at the end of 2020, while the deficit according to ESA 2010 reached 16.674 billion euros or 10.1% of GDP.
This follows from the second notification of the country's fiscal figures by ELSTAT to Eurostat, in the framework of the Excessive Deficit Procedure.
Compared with the data notified last April, debt is shown in October up by 0.7 points (it was 205.61 TtP3T of GDP) and the deficit is up by 0.4 points (it was 9.71 TtP3T of GDP).
Also, according to the revisions made by ELSTAT in previous years, the general government debt amounted to 179.5% of GDP in 2017, 186.4% of GDP in 2018 and 180.7% of GDP in 2019. While there was a surplus (instead of deficit) of 0.6% of GDP in 2017, 0.9% of GDP in 2018 and 1.1% of GDP in 2019. The revisions to the 2017- 2020 outturn are mainly due to updated data, methodological changes in the classification of some specific transactions and revision of GDP. The change in debt as a percentage of GDP is entirely due to the revision of GDP.
GDP last year stood at 165.326 billion euros from 183.250 billion euros in 2019. General government revenue last year stood at €82.197 billion (49.72% of GDP) from €89.823 billion (49.02% of GDP) in 2019. While general government expenditure stood at EUR 98.871 billion (59.8% of GDP) last year from EUR 87.758 billion (47.89% of GDP) in 2019, also due to the pandemic support measures.
At the same time, in 2019 the support to financial institutions had a positive impact on the general government balance. This is because accrued fees arising from the guarantees of the interbank lending and bond scheme, as well as the proceeds from banks' preferred shares, were higher than accrued expenditure. In contrast, in 2017, 2018 and 2020, support costs were higher than the related revenues.
As ELSTAT points out, the measurement of the primary balance as defined in the Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece is not calculated by ELSTAT and is not reported to Eurostat. As, in the measurement of the primary balance in the Economic Adjustment Programme, a number of expenditures and revenues are treated differently from the way they are treated in the compilation of fiscal data for the purposes of the Excessive Deficit Procedure. In particular, the items that are treated differently under the Economic Adjustment Programme include proceeds from asset privatisations, transactions for the recapitalisation of banks and proceeds from transfers of amounts linked to income of euro area national central banks derived from the holding of Greek government bonds in their investment portfolios.
