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Latvia plans new bond issue

Xinhua, September 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Latvia is planning to launch a new bond issue, which will be arranged by British bank HSBC, France's Natixis, and Norway's DNB, the Latvian finance ministry said.

The ten-year government bonds will be denominated in euros, the ministry said, without specifying the value of the bond issue.

Global investors will be informed about the current state of the Latvian economy, as well as fiscal and structural reforms on Tuesday, the ministry's representatives said.

"The amount Latvia is going to borrow this year from international financial markets is not as large as in previous years when it had to refinance the loans received from the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund," the ministry's representatives said.

Latvian Finance Minister Janis Reirs explained that the bond issue was being planned because Latvia needed to refinance a part of its government debt, as well as to finance the budget deficit. "In the current situation, being a fiscally responsible and predictable country, we have a fairly good chance of selling the securities on good terms," the finance minister said.

Reirs indicated that Latvia's government debt was 8 billion euros (9 billion U.S. dollars) and, although it was among the smallest in the EU, Latvia paid about 240 million euros in interest on its government debt each year.

Latvia launched two bond issues worth 2 billion euros in total last year. Endit