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April 7, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
bne:Credit
Hungary records massive deficit in March
Yields continue to compress as Poland sells PLN5bn in bonds
The Hungarian budget posted a deficit of HUF378bn (€1.04bn) in March, economy ministry data showed on April 6. The result leaves the first quarter gap at HUF198.1bn, or 17% of the government's HUF1.17tn full-year target.
The ministry insisted that despite its size, the March shortall met expectations. The Q1 deficit reflects the government's large stimulus programme announced in late 2016.
Higher wage agreements for state workers have hiked payrolls. That was only partially offset by one-off revenues from state-owned farm land sales and receipt of pre-financing payments for EU-backed projects.
Poland sold PLN5bn (€1.17bn) in local-currency bonds on April 6, the finance ministry announced. The auction saw yields compress again, having fallen at the previous auction in March, following a mostly flat performance through 2017 thus far.
The volume of papers sold matched the upper limit on the offer, although demand was capped at PLN8.7bn. Yields dipped at the previous sale of similar maturity papers on March 23, helped by dovish rhetoric from Polish rate setters, which came on the back of a slowdown in the inflation surge that began in December.
The level of bids was only slightly higher than during the previous auction, when demand for local currency bonds fell to its lowest this year so far.
Ukraine's international reserves reached $16.7bn in April after
a new $1bn tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released under its $17.5bn support programme, and a second €600mn tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Union, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on April 5.
The IMF funds were received in several parts in different currencies: SDR367mn, GBP200mn, €146mn and $92mn, the central bank underlined in a statement. The NBU added that under the IMF programme agreed in March 2015, Kyiv already obtained $8.5bn ($5.9bn from these funds were channeled to the nation's international reserves).
The current level of Ukraine's foreign reserves covers 3.6 months of future imports and is sufficient to meet the country's obligations and carry out the current operations of the government and the NBU, according to the regulator.
Ukraine foreign reserves reach $16.7bn on back of IMF, EU credit tranches