Greece still shut out of markets as investors get rid of T-bills too

Greece is struggling to follow the example of other eurozone countries that have emerged from bailout programs and are now comfortably able to issue short- and long-term debt on the money markets.

After the issue of a five-year bond in the summer of 2017 and seven-year paper last February, the Finance Ministry and the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) appear to have hit a wall in their efforts for a third issue. The unrest on international markets, particularly Italy's and Turkey's, and domestic challenges have kept investors away from Greek securities.

One fact that highlights the situation is that foreign investors are now net sellers of treasury bills too, as they are not taking part in new issues, and this is forcing Greek banks to absorb that T-bill surplus, edging closer to the limits that monitoring authorities have set on such holdings.

In practice,...