ATHENS, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Greece successfully drew 2.5 billion euros (2.85 billion U.S. dollars) from its new five-year bond issue on Tuesday, with a yield of 3.6 percent, the country's Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos announced in parliament.
The issue, the first in over 11 months for the Mediterranean country, was four times oversubscribed as offers, amounting to over 10 billion euros, official agency AMNA reported. The new bond matures in April 2024 and has a coupon of 3.4 percent.
"This 2.5 billion constitutes 36 percent of our total requirements for 2019," said Tsakalotos, referring to the Public Debt Management Agency's plan for this year that provides for a maximum amount of 7 billion euros from the bond markets.
This was Greece's first foray in the international money markets after the country's exit from the third bailout program last August.
"The most important is that when you look into the participation of investors, a very significant swing has started from hedge funds to conventional investors. You will therefore see from this issue that Greece is changing level," Tsakalotos said. (1 euro=1.14 U.S. dollars)
