T Day

The market's belief in the Greek government's commitment to financial reform, will be tested today when Greece issues Euro 1.2BN of treasury bills.

Greece needs to raise Euro 11BN by the end of May in order to refinance maturing debt and interest charges. In total, for 2010, it needs to borrow Euro 53BN.

The bailout is in effect merely a "promise" to offer help if Greece asks for it. The hope being that by offering the bailout markets will be suitably reassured, and Greece can then be able to borrow money from the market via bond sales rather than activating the bailout package.

Were Greece to ask for the package to be activated there is a high risk that individual Eurozone states may veto it, or that it simply will not be enough.

The markets, Greece and the EU will be watching very closely how T Day goes.