Wall Street Journal
September 6, 2011
The Greek Public Debt Management Agency sold €1.3 billion ($1.83 billion) in 26-week Treasury bills Tuesday, garnering ample demand from domestic buyers despite growing fears that Greece may default.
The PDMA sold the T-bills at a uniform yield of 4.80%, down from 4.85% at the previous auction Aug. 9, far below the 49.9% yield on Greek two-year bonds on Tuesday, according to Tradeweb.
The auction was Greece's first since a dispute broke out in mid-August over Finland's demand for collateral in exchange for its participation in a second bailout for Greece.
Coupled with worries about Greece's ability to deliver on its austerity targets and a shrinking Greek economy, this has pushed yields on short-dated bonds to new highs. Bond investors are also assessing the Greek government's proposals to swap some of the country's existing bonds for new, longer-dated debt.
But despite the turmoil in the bond market "Greece is still managing to have access to the T-bills markets," said Jean François Robin, a strategist at Natixis. "The money market is still alive thanks to domestic money market funds," he said.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment