Greek bond spreads widen to 990 basis points

The yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bonds widened further to 990 basis points in the Greek electronic secondary bond market on Wednesday remaining under pressures currently hitting Europe's regional economies. Earlier, Kenneth Rogoff, a professor at Harvard University and a former head economist at International Monetary Fund, speaking in Oslo said Greece

was likely to default on its debt despite a 110-billion-euro support loan offered by the EU and the IMF. 

"Greece has a history of bankruptcies," Rogoff said adding that "this is definitely something we could see in the future". Rogoff said it was highly likely that European regional countries would be forced to restructure their debt. "We have Ireland, Portugal and Greece and people is worried about Spain. The debt problems in regional Europe are very deep. The most likely scenario is to see some of these countries to restructure their debts". 

Meanwhile, Portugal on Wednesday successfully auctioned a six-month Treasury bills issue, raising 500 million euros from the market, but at a higher cost, as the interest soared to 3.686 percent from 2.045 percent in the previous auction of same T-bills in September 2010. 

ANA-MPA