Greece raises $2.1 billion in 3-month debt auction

ATHENS (AFP) - Greece raised 1.3 billion euros (S$2.1 billion) in an auction of three-month treasury bills on Tuesday at a slightly reduced rate of 4.31 per cent, the public debt management agency said.

"Total bids reached 1.98 billion euros and the amount finally accepted was 1.3 billion," the agency said in a statement, with the rate down from 4.43 per cent at the previous auction of three-month bills in August.

The last equivalent sale on Aug 14 had been extraordinarily large, to help the government avoid a cash crunch as Greece was facing redemption of a 3.2-billion-euro bond held by the ECB.

Relying on EU-IMF rescue loans for its economic survival and having been shut out of the long-term debt markets since 2010, Greece, which faces a fifth year of continuous recession, regularly issues short-term debt.