The European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, welcomed the “dramatic improvement” of the situation in Greece on Tuesday. This is enabling the country to have a “gradual return” to global markets.
Greece is issuing a five-year bond. This is a first after a three-year absence from the bond market, and evidence of improvement in consumer confidence which the indebted country hopes to create.
Mr Moscovici cited in a Presidential communiqué, “I would like to send a message today (Tuesday): we are seeing a dramatic improvement of the situation in Greece.” This came out during an interview with the President of Greece Prokopis Pavlopoulos.
The Commissioner was also very pleased with last week’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which now has all appropriate mechanisms in place to participate in the Greek programme through to July 2018.
The Commissioner said, “Greece has voted through 140 measures (to put right its economy). The country is currently in an excellent position. The IMF agrees with this.” The Commissioner is due to meet the Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, during Tuesday.
The Commissioner stressed, “The country is gradually returning to global markets. We are therefore in a new phase of relationships between Greece (on the one hand) and the European Union (EU) and the international community (on the other hand).” At the same time, the Commissioner underlined that “it is remains necessary to work both to complete the programme” and pursue “significant efforts” in this sphere.
On the basis of positive budget predictions for 2017, the country is banking on the end of the recession and a growth of 2.1% this year. As alluded to above, the leftist government, led by Alexis Tsipras, announced the return to the bond market on Monday.
The Greek Minister of Finances, says that a five-year bond, accompanied by a 4.75% coupon will be issued during the day on Tuesday. This particular financial operation will take the form of an exchange as the government has offered 2014 security holders the opportunity to realise them, at a value of 102.6% of their nominal value.
The Brussels Times
