Barclays includes Romania in flagship of EM Local Currency Government Index

Romania is the 20th country in the benchmark list and was included because it fulfilled the criteria, especially the minimum market size criterion, which is $5 billion.

Barclays will include Romania in the database of bonds, issued in local currency on emerging markets, the ministry said in a statement.

Romania will step in with a total of 11 bond issues worth $11.5 billion (9 billion euro), accounting for 0.7% of all the issues featured in the index.

Including Romania's securities in this index will provide the country with greater visibility on international markets, hence a growth in investor base, increased liquidity and will contribute for higher transparency in terms of price formation of government debt securities, the ministry added.

($ = 0.7857 euro)