ATHENS, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Greece successfully auctioned on Tuesday its six-month treasury bills, raising 1.625 billion euros (2.04 billion U.S. dollars) from the market, the Greek Public Debt Management Organization announced.

The interest rate was set at 4.65 percent, slightly higher than the 4.55 percent Athens secured in the previous auction of similar six-months treasury bills in April 13 and lower than the 5-percent threshold local and foreign analysts had expected. In January the interest rate for the same treasury bills stood at 1.38 percent.

Tuesday's auction was the first borrowing test for the debt- ridden country since May, when the safety net created by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to financially support Greece and other ailing economies to overcome the global crisis was activated.

Greek officials deemed this test of markets' mood toward Greek national economy quite positive, as bids submitted overpassed the amount asked for initially.

The Greek government expected to raise 1.25 billion euros (1.57 billion dollars) from competitive bids and got an additional 375 million euros (471 million dollars) from non-competitive bids.
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