by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Greece sold nearly 1.14 billion euros (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) worth of treasury bills on Wednesday, the Greek Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) announced.

The three-month treasury bills were sold at an interest rate of 0.99 percent, which remained unchanged from the previous auction in January.

Shut out of international markets since 2010, the debt-laden country runs a monthly treasury bill auction program to cover maturing debts and meet its financing needs, in parallel to the bailout program.

Greece is expected to fully return to the markets in 2018 when the current third bailout program ends.

Since July 2017, Athens has begun test returns to markets by issuing state bonds for the first time after 2014.

On Monday, Greek authorities announced they had hired five banks for the issuance of a new seven-year state bond, but the transaction has been delayed due to international turmoil in the financial markets. (1 euro = 1.23 U.S. dollars)