国际英语新闻：Greece raises 1.17 billion euros in six-month treasury bills

ATHENS, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Greece raised 1.17 billion euros (1.61 billion U.S. dollars) Tuesday in an auction of six-month treasury bills, the Greek Debt Management Agency (GDMA) said.

The agency had originally aimed to raise 900 million euros (1.24 billion U.S. dollars), but the demand from domestic and foreign investors was so high that eventually 1.17 billion euros was received at an interest rate of 4.54 percent, lower than 4.82 percent secured in a similar sale in September.

The outcome of the sale is regarded as a positive sign that confidence in the Greek national economy is rising, said local officials and analysts.

GDMA head Petros Christodoulou was optimistic about Tuesday's result, and the future, noting that 27 percent of the treasury bills were bought by foreigners.

Greek analysts said the attitude toward debt-ridden Greece had improved in the past few weeks, as, apart from the latest treasury bill sale, the spread of the Greek 10-year bond on the international markets had also dropped from over 1,000 basis points to less than 700.

According to the timetable set by the Greek government, the monthly treasury bill auctions will continue until 2011, when the country fully returns to the international markets to borrow money at interest rates more reasonable than those Athens received earlier this year.

For the time being, Greece is dependent on a 110-billion-euro (152.2 billion U.S. dollars) support mechanism jointly provided by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund this spring to assist the country's ailing economy over the next three years.

In exchange, Athens has pledged to implement a package of austerity measures and drastic structural reforms to readdress pressing financial woes.