Greece, in the centre of a storm over its debt, borrowed €1.625 billion for six months yesterday at a slightly increased rate of 4.88 per cent.

At the last similar issue of debt, Greece had to pay a rate of 4.75 per cent.

Demand for the latest issue was for more than three times the initial debt on offer and totalled €4.474 billion. The initial amount was €1.250 billion.

At the last issue on March 8, demand also amounted to three times the amount offered.

Greece is the target of widespread speculation that it will be unable to avoid rescheduling its debt mountain, although this is denied by top Greek and EU officials.

On Monday, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greek long-term and short-term debt sharply.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.