ATHENS, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Greece will issue 12-month treasury bills on March 14 for the first time after eight years, the Greek Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) said Friday.

The amount to be auctioned is 625 million euros (768 million U.S. dollars), according to an e-mailed press announcement.

The move is aimed to improve the state securities' yield curve in a period when Greek state bond yields are falling to several-year lows, according to Finance Ministry sources.

The last time Greece issued one-year treasury bills was in April 2010.

In the past eight years, as the country has been shut out of international markets, the PDMA has been selling three-month and six-month treasury bills each month to cover maturing debts to meet its financing needs, in parallel with the Greek bailout programs.

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

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