tommy271
Forumer storico
Greece to Auction 13-Week Bills After Banks Drive 26-Week Sale
July 16, 2010, 5:54 AM EDT
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Greece will auction 13-week bills next week after the government sold 26-week securities at an interest rate below the 5 percent charged by the European Union for a rescue package that warded off default.
The government will sell 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) of bills maturing Oct. 22 on July 20, the Public Debt Management Agency in Athens said today in a statement. Greece auctioned 1.625 billion euros of debt on July 13, with another 375 million euros issued through so-called second-day bids yesterday.
Next week’s sale will be the second since the country accepted a EU-led bailout in May. The 26-week auction signaled that confidence among banks in Greece, which purchased 80 percent of the bills sold three days ago, is growing after Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government cut wages, postponed retirements and raised taxes to trim the euro-region’s second- highest budget deficit and restore investor willingness to lend.
The debt agency sold the 26-week bills at a yield of 4.65 percent. About 4.5 billion euros of short-term securities come due from July 10 to July 23 and the rollover isn’t fully funded by the 110 billion-euro lifeline received in May to avoid default, according to an International Monetary Fund document.
Papandreou, 58, pledged to overhaul Greece’s pension system to secure the emergency loans from the EU and the IMF. The pension vote follows passage in May of 30 billion euros in austerity measures.
Budget Reductions
His government has adopted budget cuts and additional revenue-raising measures worth more than 14 percent of gross domestic product since it took office in October. Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said last week the country may beat a target to reduce the budget deficit to 8.1 percent of gross domestic product this year from last year’s 13.6 percent of GDP, the second highest in the euro region.
Europe’s debt crisis was triggered after Papandreou’s Pasok party took power and said the deficit was more than 12 percent of GDP, twice the previous government’s estimate. That sparked a surge in bond yields as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service cut the nation’s credit rankings to below investment grade.
Greece last sold 13-week bills in April, when it raised 2.4 billion euros at an interest rate of 3.65 percent, the highest for the debt of this maturity since an auction on Sept. 30, 2008. That compared with the three-month euro interbank offered rate of 0.64 percent that day.
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said on July 13 the government decided not to roll over 52-week bills because an indicated rate of 7 percent would have been too high for such securities.
July 16, 2010, 5:54 AM EDT
July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Greece will auction 13-week bills next week after the government sold 26-week securities at an interest rate below the 5 percent charged by the European Union for a rescue package that warded off default.
The government will sell 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) of bills maturing Oct. 22 on July 20, the Public Debt Management Agency in Athens said today in a statement. Greece auctioned 1.625 billion euros of debt on July 13, with another 375 million euros issued through so-called second-day bids yesterday.
Next week’s sale will be the second since the country accepted a EU-led bailout in May. The 26-week auction signaled that confidence among banks in Greece, which purchased 80 percent of the bills sold three days ago, is growing after Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government cut wages, postponed retirements and raised taxes to trim the euro-region’s second- highest budget deficit and restore investor willingness to lend.
The debt agency sold the 26-week bills at a yield of 4.65 percent. About 4.5 billion euros of short-term securities come due from July 10 to July 23 and the rollover isn’t fully funded by the 110 billion-euro lifeline received in May to avoid default, according to an International Monetary Fund document.
Papandreou, 58, pledged to overhaul Greece’s pension system to secure the emergency loans from the EU and the IMF. The pension vote follows passage in May of 30 billion euros in austerity measures.
Budget Reductions
His government has adopted budget cuts and additional revenue-raising measures worth more than 14 percent of gross domestic product since it took office in October. Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said last week the country may beat a target to reduce the budget deficit to 8.1 percent of gross domestic product this year from last year’s 13.6 percent of GDP, the second highest in the euro region.
Europe’s debt crisis was triggered after Papandreou’s Pasok party took power and said the deficit was more than 12 percent of GDP, twice the previous government’s estimate. That sparked a surge in bond yields as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service cut the nation’s credit rankings to below investment grade.
Greece last sold 13-week bills in April, when it raised 2.4 billion euros at an interest rate of 3.65 percent, the highest for the debt of this maturity since an auction on Sept. 30, 2008. That compared with the three-month euro interbank offered rate of 0.64 percent that day.
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said on July 13 the government decided not to roll over 52-week bills because an indicated rate of 7 percent would have been too high for such securities.
