February 2 (SeeNews) - Croatia's finance ministry will issue a government bond primarily aimed at retail investors in the first quarter of this year, it said.
The bond will have maturity of two years and its interest rate will be higher than 3%, finance minister Marko Primorac said in a news release published by the ministry on Wednesday. He did not disclose the expected amount of the issue.
According to market talk, the size of the issue could be between 1.0 billion euro ($1.1 billion) and 1.2 billion euro, business daily Poslovni Dnevnik reported on Thursday.
By the time this story was published, the finance ministry has not responded to a SeeNews email seeking more details of the planned bond issuance.
More than 35 billion euro are deposited at low interest rates in local banks, Primorac added, explaining the rationale behind the decision to issue a government bond that would provide a higher yield to retail investors. Individuals will have a priority to subscribe the planned bond issue, and volumes that remain unsubscribed will be offered to institutional investors.
($ = 0.910 euro)