Provisional data from the annual non-financial accounts of institutional sectors published by ELSTAT paint the starkest and most unforgiving picture of the economic squeeze facing Greek society, according to a statement by P. Koukoulopoulos and the economics sector of PASOK – Movement for Change.
The New Democracy government’s much-touted “growth” has proved to be an illusion that has done nothing to make citizens more economically resilient, instead leaving them rapidly poorer.
According to the official data:
- The household saving rate plunged to -3.9% in 2025, a dramatic deterioration of 1.5 percentage points from -2.4% in 2024.
- Greece is recording its fourth consecutive year of negative saving, showing that the economic “bleeding” has now become structural.
- Consumer spending exceeded disposable income by €6.4 billion in 2025, compared with €3.9 billion in 2024. While gross disposable income rose by 3.7% to €165.4 billion, final consumption expenditure surged by 5.2% to €171.8 billion as a result of high prices.
This €6.4 billion gap is forcing households to draw down past savings, liquidate assets or take on new debt simply to cover their basic day-to-day needs.
Meanwhile, borrowing costs for households and businesses remain among the highest in Europe. According to recent data from the Bank of Greece, the spread between lending and deposit rates in Greece stands at 4.42 percentage points. The comparable figure was 2.11 percentage points in Italy last August and 1.82 percentage points in Spain.
So while the general government is reporting surpluses, real purchasing power remains stagnant. This pattern of consumption is unsustainable. Low domestic saving deprives investment of valuable resources and leaves our country beholden to external financing.
As PASOK – Movement for Change, we stress that the country urgently needs a different mix of economic policies. This should include a meaningful boost to purchasing power, caps on the profits of oligopolies that fuel high prices, cuts to indirect taxes on essential goods, and a fair tax system that returns the surplus to society rather than exhausting it.