SOFIA (Bulgaria), December 22 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria plans to issue up to 740 million levs ($541.5 million/378.4 million euro) in government debt next year, the Finance Ministry said.
“For achieving a balanced budget, the Ministry of Finance plans a positive domestic financing of about 150 million levs in 2010 with the gross value of new issues of government securities on the domestic market worth about 740 million levs,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
The ministry plans to issue Treasury notes with maturity of two and four years in 2010, aiming to avoid peaks in debt payments in 2013 and 2015 when Bulgaria's euro- and US dollar-denominated global bonds mature. That is why next year the ministry will refrain from issuing three-year and five-year government bonds which has been the common practice so far, it added.
The Finance Ministry will also give priority to longer-term government securities. It plans to auction Treasury bonds with maturity of 10.5 years and a seven-year T-notes next year. The ministry plans to issue no short-term government debt in 2010.
The first auction of government securities for 2010 will be held on January 11. The central bank, which auctions government debt paper on behalf of the Finance Ministry, will offer 30 million levs of 10.5-year Treasury bonds.
Bulgaria has issued 545 million levs of government debt so far in 2009, half of the initially planned volume of up to 1.1 billion levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)