Greece - New paradigm or old problem?
When Greece joins Emu, raising sovereign debt will be cheaper but may not be easier. The Hellenic Republic, as the issuer is known in the capital markets, will be competing against all other euro borrowers. Spyros Papanicolaou, international banking director at the Bank of Greece, whose name is synonymous with Greek sovereign borrowing, thinks there are difficulties ahead. He also has strong views on what debt management means and the low ratings Greece gets from the agencies
How easy is it for Greece to raise funds at present?
The demand for Greek paper and the perception of the Greek credit have never been better which means that the job of raising funds has never been easier. That's been the case for the last year-and-a-half because everything's been going according to plan. All the economic indices are improving and more-or-less the markets have discounted that Greece will be joining Emu in the beginning of 2001. That makes us an extremely attractive credit because we are still paying quite attractive spreads both in the domestic market as well as the international market.