Greek bond yields buck trend to decrease after PEPP boost

Greek government bond yields start the new week on Monday after falling for a second session in a row on Friday and avoiding a sell-off that struck the rest of the market.

By Friday’s closing the benchmark 10-year bond yield had dropped to 0.767%. The European Central Bank’s cautious stance has supercharged southern Europe and especially Greece, the biggest beneficiary of the ECB’s pandemic emergency purchasing program (PEPP).

The ECB said on Thursday it would trim the pace of its emergency bond purchases from a “significantly higher” level announced in March, but was keen to stress it wasn’t about to close the money taps, with ECB chief Christine Lagarde saying: “The lady isn’t tapering.”

Greece was included in ECB bond purchases under the central bank’s Covid-19 response for the first time, having been barred previously because of its lack of an investment grade rating.