Greece on Wednesday raised 2.5 billion euros ($3 billion) in a 30-year bond sale, the finance ministry said, the first time it has issued such long term debt since overcoming its economic crisis. Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said the latest issue "signals our country's full return to international markets" after Greece's decade-long crisis. Greece was forced to accept several international bailouts after borrowing on international debt markets became prohibitively expensive in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. The ministry did not disclose the rate of return for investors at the sale of the bonds. Financial websites reported offers in excess of 26 billion euros. In January, Greece raised 3.5 billion euros in a 10-year bond sale at a "historically low" rate of around 0.8 percent according to the finance ministry. Greece expects to spend over 11.6 billion euros this year to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on the economy, on top of 24 billion euros spent in 2020. The Greek budget forecasts economic growth of 4.8 percent, scaled back from a prior 7.5-percent estimate as a lockdown imposed in November is still in force. jph/rl