Eurozone government bond yields moved higher today as strong economic data and hawkish statements from European Central Bank officials put pressure on their prices, discounting further interest rate hikes.

In the domestic market, prices corrected slightly after the rally of the previous days.

However, in today’s report, Barclays argues that despite the significant rise in the prices of Greek bonds in recent days, and the consequent reduction in the margin, there are still possibilities for its further contraction.

According to the British bank, this development is linked to the expected upgrade of the country’s credit rating to investment grade, which will allow Greek bonds to participate in indices in which large funds invest.

It is recalled that the critical date is June 9, when Fitch is scheduled to review its assessment, during which, according to Barclays, it is likely to upgrade the country to the investment grade BBB from the current BBB+. However, Barclays considers it more likely that the international rating agency will only upgrade the prospects of the Greek economy to positive, proceeding in December, to award the investment grade.

In the secondary bond market today and more specifically in the Electronic Transaction System (EDS) of the Bank of Greece, a high trading activity was also observed today as transactions of 146 million euros were recorded, of which 40 million euros related to purchase orders.

The yield on the Greek 10-year bond stood at 3.90% from 3.86% that closed yesterday against 2.53% of the corresponding German bond, with the result that the margin was set at 1.37% from 1.38% that closed yesterday.

In the foreign exchange market, the dollar is moving higher against the euro, although in the afternoon the European currency is trading at $1.707 from the level of $1.0723 that opened the market.