Private debt in Greece has climbed to €407.6 billion, highlighting what economists describe as one of the country’s most persistent structural economic problems, according to a new report prepared by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL).
The report examines the evolution of debt owed by households and businesses to banks, loan servicing companies, tax authorities and social security funds, offering a detailed picture of how private debt has developed in recent years and how its composition has changed.
According to the findings, total private debt reached €407.6 billion in the third quarter of 2025, increasing compared with previous years. The rise is attributed mainly to the expansion of bank lending, but also to the continued accumulation of unpaid obligations to the state and social security funds. The total figure includes both performing loans and overdue debts, along with penalties and surcharges.
Particularly concerning, the report notes, is the high level of overdue debt, which stands at around €236 billion and represents roughly 58% of total private debt. Most of these overdue liabilities are owed to the public sector rather than to banks, with approximately 69–70% relating to unpaid taxes and social security contributions. This suggests that Greece’s private debt problem is increasingly linked to obligations to the state, rather than borrowing from the banking system alone.
Debt related specifically to loans amounts to about €245 billion, a figure roughly equivalent to Greece’s annual economic output. The largest share of these loans αφορά businesses, while mortgages and consumer loans make up a smaller portion. Non-performing loans account for περίπου 30% of total loans, although most of these have been transferred from banks to loan servicing companies.
The report concludes that although the share of non-performing loans has fallen significantly compared with the years of the financial crisis, overall private debt remains extremely high and continues to grow, mainly due to rising debts to the state. In other words, the private debt problem in Greece has not disappeared but has instead changed in structure, with tax and social security debts now representing a larger part of the overall burden.
