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May 31, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 25
bne:Credit Russia plans another
Eurobond this year, to pause buyback
Turkey’s Treasury ‘has told top banks it expects them to buy more lira bonds’
Russia could sell another Eurobond this year denominated in euros or US dollars, the head of the Finance Ministry's debt department Konstantin Vyshkovsky told in an interview to Bloomberg on May 28.
In March the ministry tested the investor sentiment amid sanction risks and swiftly placed $3bn and €0.75bn worth of Eurobonds. This was the biggest Russian sovereign US dollar issue in six years. Total demand for both issues was high at $12bn.
The potential new issues would be smaller than the $3.9bn sold in March, Vyshkovsky said. The ministry could also cancel the plans to buy back Eurobonds this year because debt holder demands are too high. This year's budget allows the ministry to buy back up to $4bn of Eurobonds.
Turkey’s Treasury has told the country’s top banks it expects them to buy more Turkish lira-denominated bonds, prompting bankers to ask the government to issue more longer-term debt, two bankers were reported as saying by Reuters on May 28.
The report is the latest evidence of the Erdogan administration making controversial behind-the-scenes moves to manipulate the markets in the face of renewed pressure on the Turkish lira (TRY) and the government’s borrowing efforts. In a visible move, Turkey on May 28 introduced new private pension fund instructions that are expected to direct some TRY2.5bn ($413mn) towards domestic government bonds. Some market observers fear Turkey is heading for a sovereign default.
Kosovo’s trade deficit widened by 8.1% y/y to €893.8mn in the first four months of 2019, data from Kosovo's statistics agency KAS indicated.
The huge trade gap is one of the biggest problems for the Kosovan economy.
It continued to widen in the opening months of 2019 despite punitive, politically motivated tariffs imposed on two of Kosovo’s neighbours Serbia — Kosovo’s top trading partner in April last year — and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
A study by the GAP Institute for Advanced Studies, a Kosovan think tank, despite the fall in imports from Serbia and Bosnia, due to the im- position of the 100% import tariffs, Kosovo's trade deficit is still huge, which means that local producers have failed to benefit from the taxes.
Import tariffs fail to stop Kosovo's trade gap widening