In a publication under the title “Greece, former pariah of the financial markets, has regained the confidence of investors and rating agencies” the French economic newspaper Les Echos notes that on Friday, the American rating agency S&P accompanied the rating of the Greek debt, at “BB+”, the highest level of the speculative category, with a positive outlook and that it is increasingly likely that “in a few months, the former pariah of the financial markets to return to the category of “investment” securities”.

The publication states that “investors believe this and that they are asking for compensation of 4.22% for the 10-year Greek government bonds, compared to 4.32% for the Italian debt and 3.48% for the Spanish”. He also notes that at the end of March the demand for the issuance of a five-year bond amounting to 2.5 billion euros reached 19 billion, while from April the Hellas has already secured 85% of its annual loan needs.

It is also reported that since 2015 and the feverish period marked by the fear of a Grexit, the country has patiently climbed the economic rating scale, that it has cleaned up its financial sector and that European Central Bank data shows that the level of bad loans decreased from 47.4% in Q3 2013 to 6.4% in Q3 2022.

The last obstacle that the newspaper believes must be overcome is the elections on May 21underlining how the rating agencies are keeping the pressure on and explaining that any further improvement in their estimates assumes that the country will pass this new stage without changing course in terms of its fiscal trajectory.