The first peak scaled with bond return, now on to the summit

When Greece returned to the international bond market in April, with a €3bn five year transaction, it was widely hailed as a triumph for the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA). Not only did the heavily oversubscribed bond announce that Greece had regained market access at a competitive price after just over four years in the wilderness. The successful transaction also represented a pivotal step in the reconstruction of the Greek sovereign’s yield curve. The unprecedented restructuring of Greece’s debt in March 2012 — known as the Private Sector Involvement (PSI) — and the debt buyback that followed at the end of the same year were painful for bondholders, but they formed the basis for Greece’s economic reconstruction. In so doing, they played a significant role in dispelling talk of a Greek exit from the euro.