State plans to issue eurobonds to cover budget deficit

The Ministry of Finance is planning to issue bonds on foreign markets in order to finance this year’s budget deficit, according to the current finance minister Sebastian Vladescu. “We hope to launch the first eurobonds issuance this year in the first quarter. It depends on the markets, We are thinking about a EUR 1 billion issuance. The procedure takes around one week. We hope the yield will be better than in the previous issuance in 2008,” said Vladescu. The budget deficit estimated in the budget project is of 5.9 percent of the GDP for this year.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will come to Romania next week to evaluate the stand-by agreement. So far, Romania has received EUR 6.9 billion from the IMF out of the promised EUR 13 billion. The next installments of the loan are pending the Parliament approval of the 2010 budget.

Corina Saceanu