ATHENS, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Greece raised 3 billion euros (3.4 billion U.S. dollars) on Wednesday through a new 10-year bond that drew more than 15 billion euros of bids.
The bond serves as a benchmark for the Greek yield curve, according to a bourse filing.
Since the issue was more than five times oversubscribed, this brought the interest rate down by some five basis points from the original guidance, to about 1.8 percentage points, said Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras.
"The cost of borrowing is seen as particularly satisfactory, taking into account the current juncture internationally. Despite this, Greece borrowed at a cost that was less than half of a similar issue in March 2019, when the interest rate was 3.9 percent," Staikouras explained.
Greece is "making the most of the positive atmosphere it has created for itself with its policies and the management of the pandemic, as well as the very favorable decision by the European Central Bank to maintain the country in its bond-buying plans," said Dimitris Kenourgios, professor of economics of the University of Athens.
"Given that the financing plan of Greece for the current year is to raise 12 billion euros, the country is trying to take advantage of the recent upgrade of its economic outlook by Fitch and the publication of better expectations for the primary deficit of 2021," he told Xinhua. (1 euro = 1.134 U.S. dollars) ■
