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Greece nets five billion euros on lower rates after EU aid plan
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Greece nets five billion euros on lower rates after EU aid plan
AFP - Tuesday, March 30
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Interactive graphic on debt in the euro zone as European Union leaders gather for a summit to discuss concrete measures to help debt-stricken Greece.
ATHENS (AFP) - – Greece on Monday raised five billion euros with a seven-year bond issue rolled out just days after being thrown a lifeline by the European Union to help resolve its unprecedented debt crisis.
The Greek debt management agency said it had offered a coupon rate of 5.90 percent on the bond with an issue price of 99.428, adding that the yield difference over German bond mid-swaps was 310 basis points.
No offer amount was given in the agency statement but a banking source told AFP the issue had attracted bids worth seven billion euros.
Previous Greek bond issues this year had attracted much higher demand but Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou deemed the exercise a success.
"The interest rate was much better. It's still not at the point we would like but it's much better, a sign that the situation is improving," he added.
The debt management agency did not give an effective yield -- the amount of interest Greece must actually pay to buyers of the bonds -- but a price of 99.428 at 5.90 percent would translate into a return of some 5.94 percent.
Greece has struggled to lower its borrowing costs for months after having to offer rates over six percent to attract investors in its last two bond issues that brought in 13 billion euros.
In late trade on Monday, 10-year Greek bonds were yielding 6.289 percent, up from 6.193 percent on Friday. Longer-dated bonds would normally return more than shorter-dated maturities.
These rates are still about twice those which Germany, the strongest economy in the eurozone, pays to borrow for 10 years.
GFT analyst David Morrison said the reported interest was only modest.
"I think this is a thumbs down for last week's less-than-equivocal support for Greece from EU members," he told AFP.
Greece must raise huge sums urgently by May to repay debt of 20 billion euros (27 billion dollars) falling due, with some 54 billion euros needed over the year.
"Quite logically, Greece is testing its access to the markets" after the backing received from Brussels, said Valerie Plagnol, a bond strategist at CM-CIC Securities.
"The question is at which point the country no longer has access (to the markets) ... for that is when the crisis will strike," she told AFP.
Athens had called on the European Union to offer some form of lifeline to bring down the rate it had to pay to buyers of its bonds.
That pressure deepened into a crisis within the EU amid fears that other weakened economies such as Portugal or Spain could suffer next.
Last week, Brussels agreed on an unprecedented contingency plan which would also involve the International Monetary Fund.
At Greek brokers Pegasus, analyst Manos Hatzidakis said: "The aid plan approved last week creates a positive climate in the short term but more time will be needed to gauge the long-term effects."
Plagnol said that "one must not forget how much of a safeguard the euro is for European lenders" and commented: "In this context, the markets are confirming the (EU) guarantee."
The EU scheme was not clear on which criteria would trigger help that would have to be approved by the EU and therefore Germany, which says its main concern is eurozone stability and not the rate Greece must pay to its lenders.
Asked over the weekend when Greece would deem it necessary to use the EU plan, Prime Minister George Papandreou said Brussels and the European Central Bank would make the call.
"With this mechanism, the EU and ECB will be watching not only our country but the borrowing needs of each country," he told reporters in Brussels.
"They will evaluate these trends and will be the ones technically capable of answering this question ... We hope and believe that we will not have to activate this mechanism."
ECB chief supports EU's Greek rescue plan
The socialist government has launched austerity measures which include pay cuts, a sales tax rise and a freeze in public and private sector pensions in order to reduce a public deficit that reached 12.7 percent of output in 2009.
The measures have sparked two general strikes and street protests which unions warn will continue after the Easter break.
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