January 12 (SeeNews) - Croatia plans a combined bond issue, on the domestic and foreign markets, in the first quarter of the year to finance debt payments, finance minister Zdravko Maric said on Thursday.
Croatia must service debt of 27.5 billion kuna ($3.9 billion/3.6 billion euro) from the state budget in 2017, Maric said at a news conference aired by the government but declined to disclose details of the planned bond issue.
Maric added that a further 7.5 billion kuna in debt, also maturing this year, will have to be repaid from extra-budgetary funds.
A road sector debt reprogramming is scheduled for the second quarter of 2017, Maric said.
Last month, the government said it would issue up to 25.4 billion kuna in bonds in 2017 to finance budget deficit and debt payments.
Croatia's government targets a budget deficit of 6.8 billion kuna, equivalent to 1.9% of the projected GDP in 2017.
(1 euro=7.53597 kuna)