Govaa‚¬a„¢t plans to issue eurobonds to cover budget deficit

Newsroom 18/01/2010 | 16:15

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, but 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 it was with the previous issuance in 2008,” said Vladescu.

The budget deficit estimated in the draft plan is 5.9 percent of the GDP for this year. The eurobonds issuance is necessary although Romania will soon receive EUR 2.3 billion from its financial aid package from the IMF, World Bank and EBRD.

The Finance Ministry had previously said a new eurobonds issuance would be launched this year, having already selected Deutsche Bank, EFG Eurobank and HSBC Bank as intermediaries for the issuance. Initially the state was planning the move for October last year, but delayed it after the previous government led by Emil Boc suffered a vote of no confidence in Parliament.

Corina Saceanu