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From today's bulletin:
"Greek 10-year yield reached a eurozone record, of 12.9%, as the markets are now overwhelming expecting a debt restructuring, following Moody’s three notch downgrade. Greece yesterday managed to raise €1.6bn in six month Treasury Bills at a yield of 4.75%, up from 4.64% in February. The proportion of foreign investors was one third, which is a lower proportion than last time.
After Moody’s, S&P is also pondering further downgrades for Greece and peripheral countries. Moritz Kraemer, head of sovereign credit ratings for Europe at S&P’s, told Reuters Insider Television that the outcome of the March 24/25 European Council in respect of the operating rules of the ESM will be critical in the futher ratings process. "We have two main concerns. The first is the preferred creditor status of the ESM ... and second is the conditionality the ESM can impose to restructure debt. If both materialise, S&P would consider downgrading Greece. The same goes for Portugal,” Kraemer said.
The FT reports that the debt agency PDMA quadrupled the size of this month’s six-month bond issue to help meet a jump in debt repayments this month. Greece is set to pay back a total of €12bn of debt that matures during March. Wall Street Journal reports that the Greek government plans to sell up to $3 billion of so-called diaspora bonds to U.S. retail investors.
Note also that the euro fell back by a cent to under $1.3891, as a result of these latest market jitters. The forex markets are clearly torn between the eurozone crisis – which exerts downward pressure on the currency – and the transatlantic monetary policy gap, which exerts upward pressure."
The FT on the resignation of Athens' senior tax official:
Greek Inspector of Taxes Resigns
Update on tax collection
The Guardian, 13 March
The FT on the resignation of Athens' senior tax official:
Greek Inspector of Taxes Resigns
Update on tax collection
The Guardian, 13 March
As Gordon Gekko puts it "You're all pretty much f*cked" So when do we get that bit where the ship takes on last tip and then starts to plunge and even those left on board have to jump? Am I in cloud cuckoo land or is this going to get much worse - and if so how will we know? What are the signs of imminent catastrophe? Or is this as bad as it gets? I find the economics writers very unhelpful, the statistics increasingly meaningless, as indeed they seemed if you look at the daily record during the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteI never used to be interested in this kind of story, and I certainly don't know any of the answers, which is why I've started taking note of the more reliable commentaries, and the political issues involved.
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