Some 11,000 Romanians bought government bonds with maturities of 2, 3 and 5 years, worth RON 60,460 (EUR 12,700) on average, the Ministry of Finance announced.

The ministry has thus raised nearly RON 700 million (EUR 150 million) through this program, in line with the RON 735 million raised in 2016 under a similar move, local Wall-street.ro reported.

The 2-year bonds offer a yearly coupon of 4%, the 3-year issue has a 4.5% coupon, and the 5-year maturity has a 5% coupon. The Government advertised these bond issues as an alternative to financing from commercial banks, which, in the words of finance minister Eugen Teodorovici, charge excessively on public debt.

After announcing it would no longer borrow from banks as the Treasury has a robust buffer, the Government returned to the market but indeed turned particularly selective in terms of yields accepted: on February 26, the Treasury turned down all the offers received from the banks for the 151-month residual maturity bonds on sale. Meanwhile, the yield on the 52-month residual maturity issue issued on February 25 dropped to 4.27% from 4.41% on January 16.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Pexels.com)