Greece borrows 812.5 mln euros, 6-month costs dip

Greece raised 812.5 mln euros in an auction of six-month T-bills on Tuesday, paying lenders a slightly lower yield than in a previous, larger auction but still more than it pays on its bailout loans.
Debt-choked Greece is shut out of bond markets and can only hold short-term T-bill sales, and Tuesday's was the first since it received EU pledges for a second rescue.
Foreign bidders bought slightly more of the issue — about 25% compared to a 22% take-up in July, PDMA chief Petros Christodoulou told Reuters.
T-bills will not be affected by a debt swap plan agreed at the end of July as part of the new rescue deal for Athens. Under that programme, private holders of Greek debt will exchange their bonds for new ones at longer maturities and lower coupons.
"There was increased interest, one explanation is that T-bills will not take part in the debt swap," said Stelios Vyzantinopoulos, senior fixed-income trader at Marfin Popular Bank. "It also helped that the amount of the sale was smaller than in July."
The bid-cover ratio was 3.06 compared to 2.88 in the previous 6-month T-bills sale in July over 1.625 bln euros.
The sale included 188 mln euros in non-competitive bids. The issue was priced to yield 4.85%, down 5 basis points from the July auction and above the rate of about 4.2% Greece pays on its current EU/IMF bailout loans.
Greece's borrowing costs under the second bailout are planned to fall to about 3.5%.
Greece has to roll over 2.48 bln euros of T-bills maturing in August, and the debt agency will auction three-month paper on August 16. Settlement date for Tuesday's auction will be August 12.