Greece Plans to Keep Selling New Debt Despite No Financing Needs
- Aim is to reduce debt as absolute number even amid new issues
- Early repayment of part of IMF’s loans is one of the options
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After a decade-long debt crisis that made Greece a bond-market pariah, the country now enjoys the luxury of having no financing needs for 2020. Yet the government’s 2020 budget shows it still plans to sell new debt.
Despite a cash buffer of some 32 billion euros ($35.6 billion) left over from the country’s bailout program, Greece wants to maintain the good momentum of 2019 after yields hit record low levels in October. The aim is to reduce total debt seen at 329.3 billion euros in 2019, not only as a percentage of gross domestic product, but as an absolute number too.