Greek ‘diaspora’ bond plan ready end

Greece's plan to sell 'diaspora' bonds to tap Greek money abroad will be ready by the end of this year, the head of the country's debt agency (PDMA) said on Thursday.

"The programme will be ready towards the end of 2010," PDMA Chief Petros Christodoulou told Reuters. He did not provide further details.

Greece is keen to return to markets after falling into a debt crisis last year, when its budget deficit hit 13.6 percent of GDP, driving borrowing costs to prohibitive levels and prompting a 110 billion euro ($140 billion) bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its euro zone peers.

The plan to tap Greeks abroad was unveiled by Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou earlier this month.

Athens has been encouraged by its short-term borrowing sorties this month, when it kicked off a plan of monthly sales of T-bills, switching from quarterly issues.

Foreign take-up picked up in the last two auctions, with 72 percent of Tuesday's 3-month T-bill issue going to investors abroad and the yield easing for the first time since the debt crisis broke.

Greece paid 3.98 percent to raise 390 million euros, below the 5.0 percent borrowing rate it secured via the EU/IMF funding package.