Albanian gov't debt interest rates drop in latest bond auction

TIRANA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Albanian government debt interest rates dropped for the seventh auctions on Tuesday, showing that the domestic financial market remains liquid and the demand to buy bonds and bills is still high.

According to National Bank of Albania (BoA), the 12-month maturities were issued at a weighted average interest rate of 2.23 percent on Tuesday.

Interest rates declined for the seventh auction in a row, and since the beginning of 2017 they fell by more than half a percentage point. The decline is due to the ratio between demand and supply in the government debt market.

At Tuesday's auction, claims amounted to over 11 billion ALL (around 100 million U.S. dollars), whereas the amount announced for government funding was around 10 billion ALL.

Banks, which are the main financier of domestic government debt, appear to be investing more in government debt instruments, as the market has abundant liquidity, and the private sector lending is still growing. Enditem