Consumer loan law to be passed in June

The legislation for loans of up to 100,000 euros will be submitted to Parliament for voting in June, Minister of Development Takis Theodorikakos said in an interview with the Naftemporiki vidcast and journalist Michalis Psilos.

“The key objective is to ensure that citizens taking consumer or home repair loans are fully informed about the obligations they undertake and are genuinely capable of meeting them. At the same time, banks must have properly assessed the borrower’s ability to service the loan,” the minister noted.

“We are placing particular emphasis on manufacturing, border and economically weaker regions of the country, as well as on larger-scale investments, because these generate multiplier effects and create substantially more jobs. In order to strengthen the investment effort, we are prioritizing these three sectors, while during 2026 additional focus will be placed on agrifood, social entrepreneurship, advanced technologies and artificial intelligence.

We are therefore preparing a package of measures that will, to a significant extent, also target small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as individual professionals and entrepreneurs, with the aim of supporting SMEs activity.”

Asked about the climate of global uncertainty, with the wars in Iran and Ukraine ongoing and no clear indication as to when they may end, the minister acknowledged that Greece cannot remain unaffected.

“With such unexpected developments, it is preferable to speak frankly and consider all possible scenarios and consequences. The consequences are exclusively negative. That is the reality,” he said.

According to Theodorikakos, uncertainty significantly hampers investment activity and economic growth overall, while also creating difficulties for key sectors of the Greek economy. “People are less willing to travel when war is raging in a broader region of the world,” he noted.

He added, however, that Greek tourism has so far not shown signs of substantial disruption and that authorities still expect a positive summer season.

The minister stressed that the most severe impact stems from the continued rise and volatility in oil prices, which affect the entire supply chain and generate strong inflationary pressures — a particularly serious issue for relatively small and vulnerable economies such as Greece’s.

“We focused on diesel prices”

“For this reason, from the very first moment the war in the Gulf broke out, we focused particularly on addressing the increase in diesel prices, since diesel is used by all freight transport vehicles,” he said.

“In order to prevent inflationary pressures caused by higher diesel prices from passing through the supply chain, we subsidized diesel by 0.20 euros per liter. At the same time, we imposed a cap on diesel retailers’ profit margins and introduced the fuel pass subsidy for consumers purchasing 95-octane gasoline.”

The minister said these measures were adopted both to ease inflationary pressures and to combat profiteering, while acknowledging that such interventions have their limits.

Asked whether the measures had proven effective, Theodorikakos replied: “They were clearly effective, because without these measures, consumers would be paying up to 0.50 euros more per liter for diesel and 95-octane gasoline. Therefore, the measures were useful, remain useful, and have had a positive impact.”

Regarding a possible extension of the measures beyond June 30, the minister said the government would monitor developments closely.

“Our hope, naturally, is that both wars will end as quickly as possible so that stability can return to the markets,” he concluded.

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