The Greek state’s “debut” in international sovereign debt markets on Tuesday drained three billion euros out of the four billion-euro target it said it wanted, although the overall development was greeted in celebratory fashion by the leftist-rightist coalition government in Athens.
The last time Greece has ventured into the markets in 2014 in a bid to sell more paper the country’s helm was held by a center-right coalition government, with most of the cadres in the current coalition unleashing shrill criticism at the time.
According to reports from Athens, 1.6 billion euros raised in Tuesday’s bond issue will cover the 2014 five-year bond, which matures in April 2019. The remainder, 1.4 billion euros, will cover other servicing for other loans.
For the increasingly embattled Tsipras coalition government, Tuesday’s successful foray into the markets was a much-needed fillip, given that the yield was less than the April 2014 bond issue, while the coupon for the new five-year issue reached 4.375 percent, improved from the 4.75 percent in April 2014.
The yield on the full maturity of the new paper reached 4.625 percent, also improving the 4.95 percent shelled out for the bond issue in 2014.
On the other side of the political aisle, main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in commenting on Tuesday’s market testing, said “we were on the first floor (in 2014), we fell to the basement and some people are now celebrating that we returned to the ground floor.”
The pro-reform former minister, speaking from the northern port city of Kavala, referred to three years of delays in returning to markets and very high borrowing costs compared to other European countries.
