Rising bond prices pending … Fitch

The domestic bond market moved higher today, awaiting Fitch’s verdict.

The rating agency is scheduled to announce today the results of the assessment of the country’s creditworthiness, perhaps proceeding with its first upgrade.

So far, Fitch has ranked Greece in the rankings , which is located “two steps” lower than the so-called investment tier.

Greece must also move up two places in the Standard & Poors rating scale (from BB today) in order to reach the investment stage in the international house rating which is scheduled for April. While Moody’s in the evaluation that is scheduled for March will have to proceed with the upgrade only one step -from the current Ba3- in order for the country to be in the group of countries that have an investment grade (investment grade0).

Shortly before Christmas, Fitch ruled that the ECB’s decisions continue to support Greece’s debt sustainability, leaving open the possibility of upgrading today. Specifically, the then announcement of the ECB, which made it clear that it will continue to buy Greek government bonds until the end of 2024, reduces the risk – said the international house – of a sharp increase in borrowing costs for the Greek State.

It is recalled that the ECB decided that the purchase of net assets of the PEPP program will stop from the end of March 2022, but extended the period of reinvestment of bonds maturing by one year until the end of 2024. The ECB added that during possible pressures on market related to the pandemic, PEPP reinvestments can be flexibly adjusted over time, while for Greek bonds markets will be able to exceed the maturities of bonds already held by the Central Bank.

Fitch also believes that the ECB will remain flexible enough to avoid negative impacts on the financing and liquidity of Greek banks.

In the domestic market and more specifically, in the Electronic Transaction System of the Bank of Greece (HDAT) today were recorded transactions of 72 million euros, of which 28 million euros related to purchase orders. The yield on the 10-year benchmark bond fell to 1.51% from 1.55% yesterday, compared to -0.05% of the corresponding German bond, with the result that the margin is reduced to 1.55% from 1.61%.

In the foreign exchange market, the euro fell slightly against the dollar, as the European currency traded early in the afternoon at $ 1.1427 from $ 1.1453 when the market opened.

The indicative price for the euro / dollar exchange rate announced by the European Central Bank was 1.1447 dollars.

Source: AMPE