September 28 (SeeNews) - Serbia repaid on Tuesday an outstanding $725 million (617 million euro) debt on a US dollar-denominated Eurobond issued in 2011 at a yield rate of 7.50% through part of the proceeds from the issuance of 750 million euro government securities on September 16, finance minister Sinisa Mali said.
"Today, we put an end to that debt from 2011, since we paid the last instalment of a total of $725 million. That year, Serbia was indebted at a high interest rate of as much as 7.25% for ten years," Mali said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Serbia placed a dual-tranche Eurobond issue that included its first-ever green bonds and conventional 750 million euro securities with a maturity of 15 years.
The interest rate on the 750 million euro issue is 2.05%- significantly lower than the 7.25% rate of the securities issued by the government of Mirko Cvetkovic back in 2011, Mali noted.
"Due to this debt, but also to other bad moves, the state was forced to take difficult measures of fiscal consolidation, in order to prevent a complete collapse and move away from the edge of the abyss," Mali noted.
($ = 0.851125 euro)