S&P affirms Greek rating as Athens eyes bond issue, experts suggest caution

Standard & Poor's rating agency affirmed on Friday Greece's credit rating at B+, with a positive outlook, as the market anticipates the first bond issue by Greece after almost a year.

In this first assessment since Greece exited bailout in August, 2018, S&P announced it has retained its rating and outlook as in its previous review last July. But the B+ rating still stands four notches below investment grade.

Greek Finance MInister Euclid Tsakalotos has earlier announced Greece would likely tap the money markets for an amount up to 7 billion euros this year. And market experts anticipate the issue of a five-year bond soon.

"A five-year issue would be possible at this stage," Nikolina Kosteletou, lecturer of economics at the University of Athens told Xinhua.

"However, the terms may not be the best possible ones, as even though the yield of the bond has...