ATHENS — Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras welcomed the successful completion of a five-year bond issue on Wednesday.

In a statement, the FinMin said the Greek state drained 3 billion euros from the market at an almost zero interest rate, setting a new all-time low in the borrowing cost of the Greek state regardless of maturity.

The issue was more than 8 times oversubscribed, with bids exceeding 20 billion euros.

In the statement, Staikouras noted that "since July 2019, when New Democracy took over power, Greece has drained 25 billion euros from capital markets at very favorable terms," adding that this way the government guaranteed that the country's cash reserves remained at a safe level.

"Today's vote of confidence by the international investment community adds to a series of recent positive economic developments, such as the country's credit rating upgrade, rising industrial production, a higher manufacturing production index and the improvement of the economic sentiment index." Staikouras also underlined that a treasury notes auction on Wednesday resulted in an all-time low interest rate of -0.4 pct and sad that "all these are a recognition of the sacrifices made by Greek society, and the credibility and efficiency of the government policy."