Prime Minister Venizelos: Debt is Sustainable

550 investors showed interest in the sale. The state had originally set the bonds to harbor a 5%-5.25% return, but was able to decrease it to 4.95%; much lower than financial experts predicted.

The Hellenic state still suffers from a "junk" credit rating. Standard and Poor's and Fitch hold Greece six levels below investment grade, at a B-. Moody's ranks it at Caa3, at nine levels below. Happily, the nation's interest rate has been decreasing, due to the improvement of its public finances after severe austerity efforts.

Yesterday, over 20,000 Greek citizens peacefully demonstrated on parliament for two hours, against spending and employment reductions. The protestors chanted: "EU, IMF take the bailout and get out of here!". The 24-hour strike halted the operation of pharmacies, schools, ships, and left hospitals equipped with only emergency personnel.

Currently, Greece holds the least amount of jobs ever, in the last 33 years. Greek parliament recently complied to additional austerity measures that involves the further elimination of 11,000 public sector jobs, in return for the latest bailout funds.