Greece today: exports up 26.7% in August, a Commission yes to energy investment and $4bn in US arms sales

Greek exports rose 26.7% in August 2026; without fuel, the trade deficit fell

Greece's goods exports were worth €4,261.1m in August 2026, up 26.7% on August 2025, according to provisional figures published on 8 October 2026 by ΕΛΣΤΑΤ (ELSTAT), the Hellenic Statistical Authority.¹²³⁴ Imports rose 17.7% to €6,466.7m, so the trade deficit widened by 3.6% to €2,205.6m.²³⁴ Excluding petroleum products, exports rose 12.5% in August 2026 and the trade deficit fell by 6.6%.²⁴ By our calculation, fuel accounted for about two-thirds of the €897.4m rise in exports.²³⁴

Our analysis: Greek exports rose 26.7% in August 2026, but two-thirds of the rise was fuel

Commission backs Greece's energy-security investment, but warns against more fiscal flexibility

At the Eurogroup, the meeting of euro-area finance ministers, in Luxembourg on 8 October 2026, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for the economy, said the Commission had positively assessed requests from Greece and Italy to use the national escape clause for defence, which has been widened to cover energy-security measures.⁵⁶⁷ Greece already uses this clause, a flexibility in the EU fiscal rules for defence spending, and asked for it to be extended to energy-security measures.⁵¹¹ For Greece the extra room is capped at 0.3% of GDP a year and 0.6% in total up to 2028.¹¹¹² It covers energy-security investment such as energy storage, energy saving and building upgrades, not the temporary support measures for which Greece is seeking further room.¹⁰¹²¹³ Dombrovskis said "we cannot come with new fiscal flexibilities all the time", but that the Commission would look more closely at further Greek and Italian requests, including Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's call to exclude temporary support for households and businesses from the EU ceiling on net spending.⁵⁶⁸⁹ Kyriakos Pierrakakis, who chairs the Eurogroup and is also Greece's finance minister, said ministers had reaffirmed the importance of keeping to measures that are "temporary, targeted and tailored" (in our translation of Greek reports).⁶⁷ Greek reports expected formal approval for Greece's energy escape clause at the meeting of all EU finance ministers (ECOFIN) on Friday 9 October 2026; we had not seen it confirmed when this brief was published.⁹¹¹¹³

Greece and the US announce $4bn in arms sales; the joint statement names no aircraft

Greece and the United States announced $4bn in US Foreign Military Sales, the US government-to-government arms-sales programme, in a joint statement after their sixth Strategic Dialogue, held in Athens on 7 October 2026 and chaired by Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.^14151617 The statement also mentions the transfer of Stryker armoured vehicles to Greece and Greece joining the US National Guard's State Partnership Program with the state of Florida.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ The joint statement does not name any aircraft types.¹⁶¹⁷ Reuters, citing senior Greek defence and foreign-ministry officials, reported that the package covers new missiles and bombs for F-16 Viper and F-35 jets and for Black Hawk helicopters, and the upgrade of older F-16s to the Viper version.¹⁸¹⁹

A draft law would put a state database of property transfer, lease and value data into law

Article 354 of a draft omnibus bill from the Ministry of National Economy and Finance (Υπουργείο Εθνικής Οικονομίας και Οικονομικών, Ypourgeio Ethnikis Oikonomias kai Oikonomikon) would put the Property Values Bank (Τράπεζα Αξιών Ακινήτων, Trapeza Axion Akiniton) into law.^20212223 The Property Values Bank would be a state database of data on property sales and other transfers, leases and values, collected without naming individuals or companies.²³ The draft bill is open for public comment until 10:00 on 22 October 2026.²²²⁹ Article 354 changes no tax by itself; Greek reports say the data are meant to guide future revisions of objective values (αντικειμενικές αξίες, antikeimenikes axies), the official zone prices for property.²⁰²¹²³

What draft article 354 says

Bank of Greece keeps its countercyclical buffer at 0.5% for the last quarter of 2026

The Bank of Greece (Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος, Trapeza tis Ellados), the central bank, has left the countercyclical capital buffer for Greece at 0.5% for the fourth quarter of 2026.²⁴²⁵²⁶ The buffer is extra capital that banks hold to absorb losses in times of stress, and it is adjusted to the economic cycle; the 0.5% rate has applied since 1 October 2026.²⁴²⁵²⁶ The Bank of Greece judges cyclical systemic risks in Greece to be "limited" (in our translation).²⁴²⁶

Heating-oil subsidy due from 15 October; price to be announced on 14 October

Greece's heating-oil subsidy is due to start on 15 October 2026, but the final amount per litre has not yet been announced.²⁷ Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Markopoulos told Parliament on 8 October 2026 that the heating-oil price, including the subsidy, would be announced on 14 October 2026; ΕΡΤ (ERT), the public broadcaster, had reported the same date.²⁸²⁷ How it works

Also published today: What Greek pensions pay: the official September figures