European debt crisis

Greece has filed a request to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone's bailout fund, seeking its consent to pay back earlier expensive debt to the International Monetary Fund, government officials said on Wednesday.

The country has received three international bailouts from the eurozone and the IMF worth 280 billion euros since 2010.

Greece raised 2 billion euros ($2.43 billion) by reopening a 30-year bond through a private placement with two Greek banks, according to the official government gazette, the first borrowing action for 2021.

National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank participated in the transaction. The Greek debt agency issued a 30-year bond last year through a private placement.

Ljubljana – The central bank says in its latest publication that Slovenia had one of the worst epidemiological situations in the eurozone in the last quarter of 2020. This demanded strict restrictive measures in the long-term that in turn caused another steep decline in economic activity.

In the next few weeks Greece is set to tap the bond markets for the first time in 2021, and some very positive messages are coming from international firms regarding Greek notes.

Since the European Central Bank launched its first quantitative easing program in 2015, a common topic among fund managers and in rating agency reports was the risk of the Japanification of the European bond market; that is the prospect of one of the biggest bond markets in the world shrinking constantly, with investors having ever decreasing options for purchases and opportunities for profits

Future eurozone bailout programs should aim more at restoring economic growth rather than focusing mainly on fiscal tightening, and their length should be set accordingly, an independent report commissioned by the bloc's bailout fund said.

The Association of Romania's Privately Managed Pensions (APAPR) has recently asked for the Eurobonds issued by Romania to be included in the European Central Bank's (ECB) procurement programme for euro area countries.

European officials praised on Friday Greece's response to the health crisis and stressed that the country will be in the same position as its eurozone peers in the terms of the support it receives from the European Union.

The European Central Bank has acquired 4.69 billion euros of Greek bonds since it launched its emergency bond-buying program in late March to support the eurozone in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I fear German power less than her inactivity," remarked Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski at the height of the eurozone crisis. More than Germany leading Europe, Europe must fear a Germany that eschews its leadership responsibilities.