Greece: An Overview

Economic Trends of 2025

In 2025, Greece combined steady macroeconomic performance with a noticeable strengthening of the legal toolkit across several areas of the economy. Growth remained resilient by EU standards, supported by consumption, investment, and the continued pipeline of EU Recovery and Resilience Facility-backed projects, while inflation continued its gradual normalisation. The European Commission’s autumn forecast pointed to 2.1% real GDP growth for 2025, with momentum expected to carry into 2026. Labour market conditions improved further, with unemployment reported at around 9%, reinforcing the narrative of post-crisis convergence, albeit amid persistent productivity and cost-of-living pressures.

The Greek banking sector in 2025 continued its post-crisis restructuring and normalisation, with the largest lenders operating with leaner balance sheets, reporting stronger corporate and household credit growth and improving asset quality as a result of the shrinking of NPL exposure.

M&A showed strong momentum, reaching record levels of value. Deal value surged to about EUR20.6 billion across roughly 183 transactions, a marked increase over 2024 levels and reflecting a roughly 55% year-on-year rise in deal count. Key activity clustered in technology, real estate & hospitality, energy, healthcare and financial services.

2025 was another record year for Greek tourism and hospitality, with international arrivals approaching 37 million and travel revenues climbing strongly, reinforcing tourism as a strategic economic pillar. Hotel revenues grew by roughly 7-8%, albeit profitability was constrained by high operating costs and taxation.

Alongside these economic trends, 2025 also saw important legal and regulatory interventions affecting investment and market structure.

Notable Developments

A most important development came with the implementation of FDI, which was newly shaped by Law 5202/2025. For the first time FDI law introduced a structured screening regime for foreign direct investment on national security and public order grounds, aligned with EU Regulation 2019/452. With the regime becoming fully operational at the end of 2025, foreign acquisitions in designated sensitive sectors (such as energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and defence) now require prior notification and clearance before completion. Review thresholds, including shareholding levels of 10% to 25%, and detailed substantive assessment criteria have been formally established as part of the legal framework. This added a layer of regulatory friction for non-EU investors and deals with third-country links, to balance investor access with sovereignty concerns.

Law 5193/2025 introduced the national provisions supplementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 on the digital operational resilience of the financial sector (“DORA”). The Law designates the Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Capital Market Commission as the competent authorities with broad powers, as applicable, for the implementation of the DORA Regulation, including access to information, on-site inspections, the imposition of significant fines and corrective measures, and, where necessary, the removal of senior management.

Law 5203/2025, the new Greek Development Law, aims to align the development framework with the new economic, environmental, and technological conditions by introducing new aid schemes and simplifying the procedures for granting aid and incentives.

Greece further enacted Law 5215/2025, a foundational statute establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for hydrogen and biomethane as part of its energy transition, partially transposing EU Directive 2024/1788, aligning national rules with evolving European internal market and decarbonisation standards while advancing Greece’s National Energy & Climate Plan.

Greece continues to establish itself as an arbitration-friendly jurisdiction. A Special Secretariat for ADR has been tasked with shaping the legislative framework for ADR mechanisms.

After eight decades, a new succession law was introduced, strengthening the testator’s autonomy and, importantly, introducing the concept of inheritance contracts and stricter safeguards for holographic wills.

The government probably won the bet to expedite the delivery of judgments in both civil and administrative justice. The new “Judicial Map,” which merged all first-instance civil courts (including the Magistrate of Peace) into a single entity and reallocated more than 1,000 judges without new hires, proved highly effective. The average time to deliver judgments fell to 1.4 years, down from the previous four-year average in Athens. In some regions, judgments are now delivered in just 280 days, significantly faster than the average for the European Court of Justice. In the summer of 2025, Law 5221/2025 (effective as of 1 January 2026) introduced further measures to accelerate civil court proceedings. Notably, it established a new “legal e-file” system to consolidate all procedural and substantive documents for each case. The law also delegated certain matters, such as payment orders, to certified lawyers (thus relieving the courts) and shortened deadlines for legal remedies, reducing the appeal period from two years to one year for both appeals and cassation. Some provisions have been identified as needing refinement, and a new bill is being prepared to address these adjustments.

Law 5255/2025 provided for the establishment and operation of the Independent Authority for Market Supervision and Consumer Protection, with the responsibilities of supervising and ensuring the proper and transparent functioning of the market, monitoring and enforcing the implementation of consumer protection legislation, and out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes. It remains to be seen how this authority will interact with the Hellenic Competition Commission, as there may be overlap in their competencies.

In addition, important developments occurred in the granting of permanent residence to foreign investors. Joint Ministerial Decision No 214926/2025 determined the specific supporting documents for the granting of the permanent residence permit for real estate investors (Law 5038/2023 (Migration Code)).

Furthermore, an increase in the statutory minimum remuneration for private-sector employees and workers is effective as of 1 April 2025, setting the statutory minimum monthly salary at EUR880 gross and the minimum daily wage at EUR39.30 gross. This adjustment forms part of a broader governmental policy aimed at progressively raising statutory income thresholds and enhancing wage adequacy. The Government has publicly announced the intention to increase them, in successive stages, to EUR950 gross salary by mid-2027.

A significant reform occurred in July 2025 with the enactment of a new Labour Law Code, which introduced a more systematic approach, integrating provisions on individual employment, collective labour relations, and occupational health and safety. The new Law 5239/2025 “Fair Work for All” made several notable changes, including:

• expansion of daily working time to 13 hours, with employee consent and protections against adverse treatment for refusal;
• redistribution of working time, allowing up to ten hours of daily work during peak periods for greater flexibility;
• extension of maternity protections to foster mothers;
• flexible scheduling of annual leave;
• exemption from social security contributions for supplements such as night, Sunday, and holiday work, as well as overtime;
• fast-track hiring procedure; and
• shortened period of unjustified absence triggering voluntary resignation, etc.

Last but not least, in November 2025, the “National Social Agreement to Strengthen Collective Labour Agreements” was concluded between the Greek Government and social partners. This agreement, soon to be legislated, aims to revive collective bargaining and expand the coverage of sectoral and occupational collective agreements.