April 28 (SeeNews) - Romania's finance ministry said on Friday it plans to auction 3.7 billion lei ($890 million/817 million euro) in government securities and to sell an additional 405 million lei in non-competitive offers in May.
The finance ministry plans six auctions of government securities with maturity of two to eight years, and one auction for two-year T-notes worth 1 billion lei.
Raiffeisen Bank noted that the debt issuance plan for May is lower in terms of volume and average residual maturity of the issues that the plan for April.
"We think that the public debt auction calendar is feasible and the Ministry of Finance is likely to meet its borrowing target in May, provided that the sentiment on external markets does not worsen," Raiffeisen Bank analysts said in a daily market report.
In April, the finance ministry sold 3.925 billion lei in domestic debt paper and an additional 465 million lei in non-competitive offers, in line with target. Also in April, Romania raised 1.75 billion euro ($1.86 billion) by issuing a new 10-year Eurobond and reopening an existing Eurobond issue maturing in 2035.
So far this year, the finance ministry has sold some 14 billion lei worth of leu-denominated bills and bonds and the above-mentioned Eurobonds.
At the beginning of March, the ministry said it plans to sell about 2.5-3.0 billion euro worth of Eurobonds on the international markets and some 48-50 billion lei worth of leu-denominated domestic debt this year.
In 2016, the finance ministry sold roughly 45 billion lei in leu-denominated government securities and 775 million euro in euro-denominated domestic debt and raised 3.25 billion euro on global markets.
(1 euro= 4.5333 lei)