Serbia's Finance Ministry said on Monday, that after a seven-year-break the country successfully returned to the Dollar securities market due to the early repurchase of the 2011 bonds in US Dollars at a yield rate of 7.5 percent and a coupon rate of 7.25 percent.

After the presentation of Serbia’s macroeconomic results to the international investment public, as the country with the smallest economic decline in Europe this year, as well as the most considerable expected growth in 2021, the state began collecting bids for a new bond issue worth 1.2 billion Dollars, the Ministry said in a statement.

The new ten-year bonds of 1.2 billion US Dollars were issued at a yield of 2.35 percent, a coupon rate of 2.125 percent and a final interest rate in euros, after the realisation of a hedging transaction, of 1.066 percent.

The realised rate is seven times lower than that of bonds issued in 2011, which the new issue aimed at as well.

The bonds will be listed on the London Stock Exchange, the statement added.

Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said the demand of over six billion Dollars five times more than the offered value expressed by 200 respectable, primarily American and British funds, insurance companies and banks, was realised,

„All this shows the great confidence of investors in the reforms implemented by Serbia’s Government in the economy and public finances,“ he added.

„We used the favourable conditions, the best this year, to once again enter the international financial market and replace the more expensive debt with a much cheaper one. Also, this is the lowest interest rate our country has ever received on the capital market, even better than the bond issue from June and November 2019 at a time of significantly more stable market conditions,“ Mali said.

He added that the funds of the new issue are repaying 900 million Dollars of bonds issued in 2011, out of the total of 1.6 billion Dollars that would mature in September 2021.

„Return to the Dollar securities market and a new issue denominated in the US currency, allows Serbia to remain present in the index of emerging market bonds – EMBI Index, which ensures its visibility in the US capital market, as well as on the wider international investment map,“ Mali said.

By early repayment of dollar bonds with new issues, the share of general government debt in GDP remained at the previously projected level, below 60 percent.

At the same time favourable market conditions were used to provide additional funds for debt service in the coming year, the statement added.