The Greek finance minister, George Pa-paconstantinou, must feel like a man who finds a one-euro coin on the pavement only to discover he had earlier dropped a five-euro note. Worries about Greece's public finances seemed to recede on January 25th when it raised €8 billion ($11 billion) in an issue of five-year bonds. That appeared to kill the idea that Greece may not be able to tap bond markets for much-needed cash. Yet two days later the yields on Greek government bonds jumped to their highest since 1999. The sell-off renewed fears that markets may lose faith in Greece altogether. Talk of a bail-out by its euro-zone partners is growing.
展开▼
