The new Greek government threw down the gauntlet at international creditors on Wednesday by announcing the halting of privatizations agreed to in the country’s bailout deal, and by all accounts the markets threw the gauntlet back in fury.
A torrent of anti-austerity spending pledges and promises to reverse liberalization in the labor market generated a third day of heavy losses and skyrocketing risk factors on financial markets, with “crash” being the leitmotif describing the Athens Stock Exchange.
Agony was prompted by a dramatic explosion in 3-year spreads and a dive in 10-year bonds on the Athens Stock Exchange, where investors appeared shocked from the comments made by a bevy of new Cabinet members, including the unofficial head of the even more far-left wing of radical leftist SYRIZA party, Panayiotis Lafazanis.
Spreads on 10-year bonds climbed to 10.175 (+5.15% from Tuesday) and three-year bonds went over 17%. Bank bonds have lost over 30% in just a week with four banks losing 2.17 bln worth of capital share within a day dropping from 14.1 bln euros to 11.9 bln euros from the 34 bln euros they stood at last summer.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services are considering downgrading Greece’s credit following concerns over whether the country can continue to service its Olympus-sized debt. An earlier move this month was taken by Fitch, which changed its outlook on Greece’s ratings to negative.
“The CreditWatch placement reflects our view that some of the economic and budgetary policies advocated by the newly elected Greek government, led by the left-wing Syriza party, are incompatible with the policy framework agreed between the previous government and official creditors,” S&P said in a news release.
“In our opinion, if the new Greek government fails to agree with official creditors on further financial support, this would further weaken Greece’s creditworthiness.”