SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), January 11 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Federation raised 260 million marka ($158.8 million/132.9 million euro) in 11 Treasury bill auctions in 2017, the entity government said.
The raised funds were used to service liabilities from previous years, the government said in a statement on Wednesday, quoting the Federation finance minister.
Four auctions were called off. The Federation initially planned to raise 360 million marka in 15 treasury bill auctions.
In 2017, the entity reduced its debt by 632.98 million marka, of which 510.68 million marka relates to the reduction of foreign debt and 122.30 million marka to domestic debt.
The Federation government did not give a end-2017 debt figure.
In November, the Federation said it plans to issue short-term and long-term government paper in the amount of 510 million marka in 2018 to refinance existing debt.
The Federation is one of the two autonomous entities forming Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.
Both entities were faced with underfunding last year since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided to postpone the release of a second loan tranche under its current three-year funding deal with the country earlier in 2017, due to unfulfilled reform targets. In December, the IMF, however, said it has reached a staff-level agreement with Bosnia to conclude the first review under the finding arrangement, which could see the IMF disburse some 76 million euro ($90.2 million) in early 2018.
(euro=1.95583 marka)