Bulgaria has successfully sold 950 million euros ($1.2 billion) worth of five-year government bonds at an interest rate of below 5 percent. The Finance Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the bonds sold Monday cost the Bulgarian treasury only 4.25 percent interest yield - lower than the 7.5 percent for an issue that matures in January 2013.

The eurobond, managed via BNP Paribas, HSBC and Raiffeisen Bank International as joint bookrunners, is needed to repay a government debt due next January.

Shaken by the global economic crisis, the Balkan country of 7.3 million people is not able to meet its debt payment commitments without raising fresh money on the international market. Bulgaria last appeared on the international capital market in 2002. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov also cheered: "The yields on the new bonds are better than those achieved by some of Europe's well-recognised economies." Bulgaria last tapped the international markets in 2002.

Finance Minister Simeon Djankov had then said he hoped to achieve a yield, or rate of return for investors, as low as 5.5 percent, compared with the 7.5 percent Bulgaria has to pay on the imminently maturing debt. Bulgaria, which has one of the lowest public debts in the European at only 15.6 percent of gross domestic product, will also have to refinance a 1.1-million-dollar debt issue maturing in January 2015.
 

FOCUS