Greece plans to repay the loans it has received under the country’s first rescue program 10 years earlier than the foreseen, in a move aimed at lightening the country’s debt burden in the future. This was stated by Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, in an interview on Bloomberg television on Monday, from Brussels where he is on Eurogroup and Ecofin meetings.

“We must have left them completely behind us until 2031,” he said, adding that fiscal prudence is not a political “status”.

According to the current timetable, the latest repayment of this total loans was scheduled for 2041, but the Athens government wants to repay the full amount by 2031, Kyriakos Pierrakakis said.

It is recalled that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in an interview with Bloomberg last November, had stated that Greece had already repaid some of its loans earlier than the timetable and plans to do so again in 2025.

Greece is currently owed € 31.6 billion in the context of the so -called loan facility for Greece, out of the total loans of € 52.9 billion received from eurozone countries in 2010. It is recalled that the country needed a total of three international rescue programs, mainly from the eurozone countries.

The move to premature repayment of further loans comes as Athens continues to overcome its budgetary targets, and aims to relieve the country’s obligations from 2032 onwards.

In 2018, the eurozone rescue fund approved a series of debt relief measures for Greece, including – among other things – the postponement of interest payment and repayments, which means that the country will not begin to repay most of the loans that were disbursed by the second program.

Early repayment of GLF loans is even more smoothing out Greece’s obligations.

It is noted that the country’s public debt decreased to 153.6% of GDP in 2024, compared to the target of 154%, and was also reduced in nominal terms. This year, it is expected to retreat below 150%.