Greece, which has needed three international bailouts this decade, on Tuesday made its second bond sale at record-low yields since July, the prime minister said, raising 1.5 billion euros at 1.5 percent.

"The historically low yield of 1.5 percent for Greece's 10-year bond is yet another vote of confidence in the country's economy and strong growth prospects," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a tweet.

Athens raised 2.5 billion euros in a seven-year bond placement in July at 1.9 percent, which was then a record-low yield in a primary auction. At the previous auction of 10-year bonds in March the yield was 3.9 percent.

The yield, or the rate of return, on Greek 10-year government bonds spiked to over 40 percent on the secondary market at one point as investors demanded high returns to hold the highly risky debt. The 1.5 percent yield puts Greek 10-year bonds at roughly the same level as 10-year US government bonds, which were trading at 1.522 percent on secondary markets on Tuesday.

Both Germany and France are able to borrow at negative yields, while the yields on Italy's 10-year bonds is roughly 0.84 percent.

Greece expects its economy to grow by 2.8 percent in 2020 whilst respecting fiscal pledges to the country's creditors, a draft budget released Monday said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019