{{The sale of long term debt by the Greek government was eight times over subscribed, the government has said.}}
Greece’s deputy prime minister Evangelos Venizelos said demand for 3bn euros (£2.4bn) worth of five year bonds proved the country’s debt is sustainable.
The sale attracted interest from 550 investors.
Greece is retuning to the capital markets for the first time since its economy nearly collapsed in 2010.
The Greek government had initially priced the bond to provide a return of between 5% and 5.25%.
But with investor orders running at 20bn euros (£16.5bn) it was able to lower the yield to 4.95% – far lower than analysts had expected.
The country still has a “junk” credit rating, nine notches below investment grade at Caa3 by Moody’s. Standard and Poor’s and Fitch rank Greece six notches below investment grade at B-.
Bailout
Greece has been locked out of capital markets by high borrowing costs since 2010.
The bond sale comes almost four years to the day the government said it could no longer fund itself.
It received an international bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union (EU) and a further bailout two years later as well as loans of 240bn euros.
The bailouts were granted on condition Greece imposed a series of deeply resented spending cuts and tax hikes.
However, the country’s interest rates have been falling recently as its public finances have improved following tough austerity measures.
Protests
The bond sale came amid reports that a car bomb had exploded outside one of the Bank of Greece’s offices in central Athens at dawn.
Police, blamed leftwing or anarchist extremists, but said no one was injured.
Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel is due to make an official visit to the country on Friday.
Many Greeks blame Germany for insisting on spending cuts and tax increases in return for loans.
On Wednesday thousands of striking Greeks marched on parliament to protest against job and spending cuts.
BBC
Leave a Reply