September 17 (SeeNews) - Serbia placed its first-ever green bond issue on the international financial markets to finance projects supporting its sustainable economic growth, the country's central bank said.
The seven-year green bonds worth 1.0 billion euro ($1.2 billion) were part of a dual-tranche Eurobond issue that also included conventional 750 million euro securities with a maturity of 15 years, the central bank, NBS, said in a statement on Thursday.
Serbia has become the only European country that is not an EU member state to issue a green instrument, the NBS said.
Investor demand for the green bonds, bearing a coupon rate of 1.0% and a yield rate of 1.26%, exceeded 3 billion euro. The 15-year Eurobond, with a coupon rate of 2.05% and a yield rate of 2.3%, attracted bids worth a combined 2.5 billion euro, the central bank added.
"Serbia managed during the day to lower interest rates by a fifth from the initial conditions, that is 20% (or 0.35 of a percentage point) for the green seven-year bond and 13% (or 0.30 of a percentage point) for the conventional 15-year bond," central bank governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said in the statement.
The funds raised through the issue will be used to finance or refinance new and existing expenditures aimed at achieving even more sustainable growth through investments in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, transport, sustainable water management and pollution prevention and control.
($ = 0.8491 euro)