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Next week and before Easter in every case, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will announce the return of Greece to the capital markets after four years of absence as reported by Greek media today.
 
A day earlier, the first rumours appeared that the Greek government is preparing to issue bonds with a 5-year maturity in order to obtain 2 billion euro from private investors. The Ministry of Finance is still silent regarding the disseminated information but last night's meeting between Antonis Samaras and Yiannis Stournaras, which discussed the matter, shows that Greece's return to the capital markets is a matter of days.

After the meeting, the Finance Minister confirmed that "the government is considering returning to the financial markets" and added, "The date of the bond issue depends on market conditions but I cannot give more details."

Late on Thursday, just before the end of the meeting between Samaras and Stournaras, journalist Chris Adams of the Financial Times economic edition wrote on his Twitter profile that Greece would return to the capital markets on 11 April, the day when German Chancellor Angela Merkel would visit Athens.

According to sources from the Greek Ministry of Finance, Moody's report on Greece, which is about to be announced today, will play a crucial role in determining the issue date of Greek government bonds. It is believed that there is a high probability of the agency improving the rating of the Greek economy.

The agreement that was reached a few days ago between the Greek government and the supervisory Troika as well as the positive assessments of the course of the Greek economy made by representatives of the European institutions at the beginning of the week have significantly improved the attitudes towards Greece.

It is significant that the spreads on 10-year bonds maturing in 2023 have fallen to the pre-crisis level of 6.02%. By comparison, in June 2012 they had reached 31%. The Minister of Finance expressed confidence that the political turmoil due to the video disseminated by Golden Dawn would not threaten the positive progress of the economy.

According to analysts at Morgan Stanley, the prices on the secondary market of securities prove that the interest rates on the issue of bonds with a 5-year maturity will be about 5.3% and on securities with a 3-year maturity 4.2%.

However, despite the triumphant atmosphere around Greece’s upcoming return to the capital markets, there are commentators who do not approve this decision, believing that it is too early for such a move. In addition to international commentators from influential media such as The Wall Street Journal, there are such voices in Greece as well. In an article entitled "Who will pay for the return to the market", which Kostis Lympouridis published in Real News newspaper and on his personal blog, the commentator expresses doubt whether this decision is favourable to Greece.

"The interest rate of the loans that we receive from the Troika is below 2% and we continue calling its members ‘loan sharks’. Should we call this a ‘success’, if Greece returns to the financial markets and obtains a loan at an interest rate of above 6%?"

"The return to the markets" is the shortest joke spread by the government. It has frozen all reforms, exhausted everyone and everything with burdensome taxes, left millions of people without insurance while others are no longer able to pay all taxes and fees, and even their electricity bills. Against this background, the government is preparing to "return to the capital markets" before the European elections and to solemnly declare that the crisis is over.

Let us make a rough estimate: With an external debt of 300 billion euro, under the Memorandum, we pay 5 billion euro per year in interest rates. If we obtained financing from the markets, the annual interest would be about 20 billion euro. It seems that the government is not interested in this unbearable burden but in avoiding the pressure for the implementation of the reforms.

This is the obsession of Greek politicians, namely, how to reduce the pressure exerted to change everything harmful to us. Moreover, they do so in order to avoid closing some state institutions that are totally unnecessary, laying off some of the people who are appointed by party line and liberalizing the closed professions. To avoid all this the government is ready to take loans the value of which will be three of four times higher and to present this as a success," he writes.