Greece planning more bond issues in March: report

(ATHENS) - Greece is planning to raise around 10 billion euros (13.6 billion dollars) this month by issuing bonds as it races to meet debt requirements, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Tuesday citing officials.

"Greece would like about 10 billion euros from bond issuance in March," an anonymous official was quoted as saying. The official said the money would be "a good cushion before the big debt maturities in April and May".

Greece needs to redeem debts of around 20 billion euros by the end of May.

The government last week sold five billion euros in 10-year bonds, but it was forced to borrow at a high rate of above six percent -- about twice the rate for a 10-year German bond -- because of low investor confidence.

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told US financial channel CNBC on Tuesday: "It's clear we cannot continue borrowing at those rates."

The yield on a 10-year Greek bond late on Tuesday was at 6.243 percent -- higher than the 6.211 percent registered late on Monday.

A second official was quoted in the report as saying: "We still expect some kind of an arrangement from the European Union.... There are discussions on this matter so that Greece can pay more logical yields."

The second official said Greece was also trying to borrow between five billion and 10 billion dollars through a separate bond offering aimed at investors in the United States and Asia in March or April.

-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report --