Bad-loan ratio to fall to single-digits in 2022

Greek banks’ stock of nonperforming loans will fall to a single-digit percentage rate in 2022, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Wednesday.

“The correct, serious and methodical work done in the last two years, under the coordination of the former deputy finance minister George Zavvos, continues,” the minister said in a statement, adding that, “according to Bank of Greece data, Greek banks’ NPLs totaled 29.4 billion euros in June 2021, 20.3% of total loans, recording an impressive decline during the last two years.

The stock of NPLs has fallen by around €46 billion since New Democracy took over the government (it was €75.3 billion in June 2019) and around €78 billion from the peak in March 2016 (€107.2 billion). This significant reduction is the result of an integrated and coherent strategy followed by the Finance Ministry through the successful Hercules program, which has been expanded, and specific interventions implemented to contain the creation of a new wave of nonperforming loans because of the pandemic crisis,” the announcement said.