Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, said on Wednesday 7 February that he does not wish his country to have access to a preventative line from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) that can be activated if needs be, once the third bailout plan is concluded.
These comments, reported by The Irish Times, indicate that the Hellenic authorities will opt for a clean exit from the third Greek bailout plan and therefore not be the subject of post-programme reinforced monitoring. Readers may recall that the bailout plan is logically expected to be concluded in August of this year (see EUROPE 11942).
In any event, the Hellenic Republic will be required to maintain a primary budgetary surplus (not including servicing the debt) or 3.5% of GDP until 2022, then of 2% of GDP on average right until 2060 (see EUROPE 11807).
Successful issuance of seven-year bonds
On Thursday 8 February, furthermore, Tsipras' government issued seven-year bonds at a starting rate of 3.75%. With an orderbook representing €6.5 billion, Tsipras welcomed the enormous demand on the market, which was double that which his government had hoped for.
Athens had intended to carry out this operation earlier in the week, but the volatility of the financial markets had forced the authorities to delay it. On 27 July last year, Greece successfully issued five-year bonds, at a rate of 4.7% (see EUROPE 11836).
Symbolising renewed confidence, the theoretical interest rates set on the Greek 10-year instruments currently stand at around 3.7%, for the first time since 2006.
Pierre Moscovici hopes that Athens will keep its commitments.
The European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, was in Athens this Thursday for a two-day working visit.
In an article published on his blog before his trip, he welcomed the scheduled end to the European financial assistance that has been awarded to Greece since 2010. He wrote that it would give Greek the opportunity to become a 'normal' member state of the Eurozone again at last, with all its rights and all its obligations, following years of often painful sacrifices, stressing the pace of the reforms carried out by Athens.
Dismissing the possibility of a fourth bailout plan, Moscovici called upon, on the one hand, the Greek authorities, even when they come out of budgetary supervision, to implement healthy economic and budgetary policies and, on the other, on Greece's European partners, to keep the commitments they have made concerning measures for the debt. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)