Government debt

The yield of the Greek 10-year bond, the benchmark of the Greek debt market, has now dropped below 3%, at the lowest levels since April 2022, when the main interest rate of the European Central Bank was still at negative levels.

One of the key figures of the 2009-2018 Greek debt crisis, Germany's former finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, died on Tuesday. It is a development that appears almost symbolic in this country, as the deep wounds inflicted on its economy during that period, leading to a loss of a quarter of its output, have gradually started to heal.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who helped negotiate German reunification in 1990 and as finance minister was a central figure in the austerity-heavy effort to drag Europe out of its debt crisis more than two decades later, has died. He was 81.

Schaeuble died at home on Tuesday evening, his family told German news agency dpa on Wednesday.

A significant reduction in the debt ratio, the strengthening of economic resilience, and improvement in Greece's governance indicators are the three essential steps required for the country to fully normalize and regain an A credit rating, as it had before the debt crisis, thus aligning with the average credit rating of eurozone economies. This analysis comes from the Bank of Greece.

Greece plans to raise up to €10 billion from debt markets via short- and long-term bond issues next year, its debt agency PDMA said on Friday.

Outlining its 2024 strategy, PDMA said Greece plans to repay ahead of schedule more bailout loans and reduce the amount of T-bills in circulation.

The European Union finance ministers reached a compromise agreement for the new Stability and Growth Pact on Wednesday during an Ecofin teleconference, after weeks of arduous consultations on the new reform framework on the pace of debt and deficit reduction by member-states.

European Union finance ministers agreed on Wednesday on changes to the EU's fiscal rules updating them to the post-pandemic realities of high public debt and the need for massive public investment to fight climate change.

The pact is complex but is built on two crucial principles: an upper limit for a country's national budget deficit, and an upper limit for its total public debt.

In nine years, when Greece enters 2033, it will be faced with a problem going back to its bailout past: The public debt will suddenly be burdened with an extra 25 billion euros, or 8% of the then GDP, as the interest on loans from 2013, which has been frozen for almost two decades as part of debt relief arrangements with its European lenders, will be added to it.

The financing needs of Cyprus for next year amount to 1.3 billion euros, largely to be covered by the issuance of a €1 billion European medium-term note (EMTN), the Cypriot Finance Ministry's Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) said last week.

The Public Debt Management Agency announced it will auction 52-week treasury bills on Wednesday to the amount of 375 million euros, in book entry form, with maturity on December 6, 2024.

The settlement date is this Friday.