Samaras ‘satisfied’ at Greece bond sale ahead of crucial deadline
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras ‘satisfied’ that his country has successfully sold nearly €1 billion worth of short-term treasury bills today, meeting its target of raising 5 billion ahead of a crucial debt repayment deadline.
15 November 2012, 12:00am
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Karl Stagno-Navarra
2 min read
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is in Malta today
Greek premier Antonis Samaras has every reason to be satisfied and smile at the cameras as he shook hands this morning with Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in Valletta, as he garnered success in his country's latest bond auction.
Today's was deemed as "essential" if Greece was to avoid bankruptcy, after eurozone finance ministers postponed a decision on granting the country its latest bailout.
Today's bond sale, worth €937.5 million, adds to the €4.06 billion raised on last Tuesday, the Greek debt agency (PDMA) said.
From Malta, Samaras expressed himself rather "optimistic" about his country's prospects. He stressed: "the Greek success story will be a European success story," as he addressed delegates meeting at the Radisson Golden Sands Hotel on the sidelines of a meeting organised by the European People's Party (EPP).
"We will survive the crisis," he confidently stressed, but warned that Greece is "dying without liquidity."
"In Greece we have seen the ugly face of the crisis but after the recent decisions that we have taken, next year we should witness the first signs of recovery," Samaras said.
The leader of Greece's three-party coalition government rehashed past pledges that the debt-wracked will fulfill its commitments to its international creditors, but called for more European action to cure Greece's and the Continent's debt woes.
"The answer is more Europe," Samaras stressed as he urged for deeper monetary and economic union. "A Greek success story will be a European success story," he said.
Athens needs to pay off an estimated €5 billion worth of treasury bills that mature on Friday, and had been counting on money from international lenders to help cover that.
The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have delayed the release of a €31 billion bailout tranche, and Eurozone finance ministers agreed last Monday to give Greece two more years to restore its finances, but postponed their decision on whether to grant it the latest loan installment until details are finalised.
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As you can see protests demonstrate this weekend ,there is no appetite for public money being used to rescue the banks yet again.People got sold out.Banks got bailed out.
