BERLIN (MNI) – Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said
Thursday that Greece plans to return to the bond markets with issuances
of a longer maturity sometime next year.
“[The issuance] of a longer maturity will be sometime next year but
it is hard to say when,” Papaconstantinou told reporters on the
sidelines of a financial conference here. “It will depend on market
conditions.”
Asked which maturities he was planning to issue then, the minister
replied, “that’s an issue of tactic…and how the curve of the spreads
is.”
Papaconstantinou reaffirmed his belief that Greece will be able to
meet its budgetary targets, arguing that worries about recent revenue
drops were exaggerated.
“[This is] an issue which has been very much blown out of
proportion,” he argued, “don’t forget we have now a number of months
[ahead of us] with VAT being four points higher than last year,” he
explained. “In any case, we’re underspending so the deficit targets will
be met,” the minister stressed.
The Greek economy might also perform better this year than the 4%
drop in GDP currently forecast, Papaconstantinou suggested.
“We see some interesting, encouraging signs from leading indicators
in terms of some resumption of consumer and business confidence which
makes us think that it could be possible that by the end of the year we
have a slightly better result than the one we projected,” he explained.
Yet, he added that “we’re very cautious about that [and] we’re not
about to change the official prediction” of a GDP drop of -4% this year.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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