Greece held an auction of 13-week treasury bills valued at 500 million euros, achieving a yield of 2.63%, on Wednesday, Nov. 30. Total bids reached 1.061 billion euros, oversubscribing the offer by 2.12 times, as reported by the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA).
The auction was conducted through Primary Dealers, with settlement scheduled for Friday, November 1, 2024. Offers were accepted up to the auctioned amount, along with an additional 100 million euros in non-competitive bids.
No supplementary non-competitive bids will be accepted on Thursday, October 31, 2024. Notably, no commission fees apply to these auctions.
Meanwhile, Greece has announced an early repayment of the Greek Loan Facility, aiming to reduce public debt by the end of the year.
All necessary approvals are expected for the early repayment of a 7.93 billion euros instalment from Greece’s initial bailout loan provided directly by Eurozone countries, by Dec 15.
According to the PDMA, procedural clearances are anticipated by mid-Dec. to enable both the early repayment and the utilization of the15.7 billion euros buffer from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
This initiative is expected to save Greece approximately 300 million euros in annual interest payments through 2028 while improving the debt profile.
Out of the 8 billion euros repayment, 5 billion euros will be allocated from the ESM buffer in Dec. for early bilateral loan repayments under the first bailout agreement, alongside an additional 3 billion euros from Greece’s cash reserves.
If completed, this repayment will mark Greece’s fourth early repayment of bilateral loans, following repayments to the IMF in March 2019 and March 2021, and another early repayment of 5.29 billion euros in Greek Loan Facility loans in December 2023.
