Greece saw "huge demand" on Thursday in another tentative return to markets with a seven-year-bond, its first sale of the sort since the start of the economic crisis, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said. "We had good news from the markets. The transaction is going well," Tsipras told visiting EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici about the issue, which sought to raise around 3.0 billion euros ($3.7 billion).
Ahead of an official announcement, state agency ANA said the sale drew offers of around 6.5 billion euros at an interest rate of 3.5 percent. The last seven-year bond, sold at an interest rate of six percent, was issued in April 2010 - days before the country publicly requested the first of its three EU-IMF bailouts. Greece currently has no urgent need to draw money from the bond markets as it is still receiving financial support at lower rates under its international bailout that ends in August.