The positive sentiment in the secondary market coupled with positive developments on the fiscal front have contributed to the following paradoxical occurrence: Greece, which has a much lower credit rating (BB, BB-), borrowing at a lower interest rate than France, which the rating agencies rank at the top of the rating scale (AA-, AA2).
Of course, this does not apply to all of the government bonds issued by the two countries, only the 5-year bond.
Specifically, in recent days the yield on the Greek 5-year 2.39% bond has fallen to a lower level than that of the equivalent 2.48% French security. As for the yields of the other bonds, that of the Greek 10-year is at 3.10% compared with 2.94% for the French and 3.47% for the Italian bond.
This picture reflects both the positive developments on the fiscal front and the favorable conditions of public debt management. It should be noted that the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, raised the primary surplus bar for this year to 2.4% of GDP from 2.1% projected in the budget.
As for the public debt management part, the country’s borrowing needs remain at a low level. Thus, so far this year, Greece has executed about 91% of its loan program.
By the end of the year, 91% of the loan program has been completed to date.
So far, Greece has borrowed 9.1 billion euros from the markets since the beginning of the year.
For this year, the Public Debt Management Agency had announced that the plan for Greek government borrowing would be between 7 billion and 10 billion euros. It also planned to reduce the government’s cash reserves by €3.65 billion, thus reducing the public debt by an equal amount (about 1.5% of GDP). According to the latest report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), public debt will fall to 138% of GDP in 2029.
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