19.11.2013

The Ministry of Finance reopened for the 5^th time during the year the 10.5 year benchmark issue of BGN denominated Government Securities (GS) issued on 9 January 2013 with maturity 9 June 2023. The issue is a reference one in respect of the harmonised long term interest rate to evaluate convergence level, part of the Maastricht criteria. At the auction held on 18 November 2013 the yield achieved was 3.55% for the GS offered to the amount BGN 50 million and the coverage coefficient was 1.73. The yield is lower by 24 b.p. compared to the previous auction for the issue in October 2013. The biggest amount of GS acquired banks - 57.50%, followed by pension funds - 20.50%, investment intermediaries - 12.00% and insurance companies - 10.00%. After the 5^th reopening the issue totals BGN 300 million.

The yield achieved on the Bulgarian long term bond is below that of bonds with similar characteristics of EU Member State and countries from the region: Turkey (8.92%), Hungary (5,.0%), Romania (5.45%), Spain (3.99%), Lithuania (3.98%), Latvia (3.94%) and Italy (3.87%).